Metaphysical naturalism, also called ontological naturalism, philosophical naturalism, and scientific materialism is a philosophical worldview, which holds that there is nothing but natural elements, principles, and relations of the kind studied by the natural sciences. Methodological naturalism is a philosophical basis for science, for which metaphysical naturalism provides only one possible ontological foundation. Broadly, the corresponding theological perspective is religious naturalism or spiritual naturalism. More specifically, metaphysical naturalism rejects the supernatural concepts and explanations that are part of many religions.

Naturalism, in recent usage, is a species of philosophical monism according to which whatever exists or happens is natural in the sense of being susceptible to explanation through methods which, although paradigmatically exemplified in the natural sciences, are continuous from domain to domain of objects and events. Hence, naturalism is polemically defined as repudiating the view that there exists or could exist any entities which lie, in principle, beyond the scope of scientific explanation.

Regarding the vagueness of the general term "naturalism", David Papineau traces the current usage to philosophers in early 20th century America such as John Dewey, Ernest Nagel, Sidney Hook, and Roy Wood Sellars: "So understood, 'naturalism' is not a particularly informative term as applied to contemporary philosophers. The great majority of contemporary philosophers would happily accept naturalism as just characterized—that is, they would both reject 'supernatural' entities, and allow that science is a possible route (if not necessarily the only one) to important truths about the 'human spirit'".[3] Papineau remarks that philosophers widely regard naturalism as a "positive" term, and "few active philosophers nowadays are happy to announce themselves as 'non-naturalists'", while noting that "philosophers concerned with religion tend to be less enthusiastic about 'naturalism'" and that despite an "inevitable" divergence due to its popularity, if more narrowly construed, (to the chagrin of John McDowell, David Chalmers and Jennifer Hornsby, for example), those not so disqualified remain nonetheless content "to set the bar for 'naturalism' higher".[3]

Philosopher and theologian Alvin Plantinga, a well-known critic of naturalism in general, comments: "Naturalism is presumably not a religion. In one very important respect, however, it resembles religion: it can be said to perform the cognitive function of a religion. There is that range of deep human questions to which a religion typically provides an answer ... Like a typical religion, naturalism gives a set of answers to these and similar questions".[4]

Metaphysical naturalism is an approach to metaphysics or ontology, which deals with existence per se, it should not be confused with methodological naturalism, which sees empiricism as the basis for the scientific method.

If it is important for Americans to learn about science and evolution, decoupling the two forms of naturalism is essential strategy. ... I suggest that scientists can defuse some of the opposition to evolution by first recognizing that the vast majority of Americans are believers, and that most Americans want to retain their faith, it is demonstrable that individuals can retain religious beliefs and still accept evolution as science. Scientists should avoid confusing the methodological naturalism of science with metaphysical naturalism.[5]

The historian Richard Carrier, in his book Sense and Goodness without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism, describes metaphysical naturalism thus: as a philosophy "wherein worship is replaced with curiosity, devotion with diligence, holiness with sincerity, ritual with study, and scripture with the whole world and the whole of human learning". Carrier wrote that it is the naturalist’s duty "to question all things and have a well-grounded faith in what is well-investigated and well-proved, rather than what is merely well-asserted or well-liked".[6]

While not metaphysical naturalism per se, in the more general sense of naturalism and philosophy expressed by Kate and Vitaly (2000) "there are certain philosophical assumptions made at the base of the scientific method - namely, that reality is objective and consistent, that humans have the capacity to perceive reality accurately, and that rational explanations exist for elements of the real world. These assumptions are the basis of naturalism, the philosophy on which science is grounded."[7] As noted by Steven Schafersman, methodological naturalism is "the adoption or assumption of philosophical naturalism within scientific method with or without fully accepting or believing it ... science is not metaphysical and does not depend on the ultimate truth of any metaphysics for its success (although science does have metaphysical implications), but methodological naturalism must be adopted as a strategy or working hypothesis for science to succeed. We may therefore be agnostic about the ultimate truth of naturalism, but must nevertheless adopt it and investigate nature as if nature is all that there is."[1] Contrary to other notable opponents of teaching Creationism or Intelligent Design in US public schools such as Eugenie Scott, Schafersman asserts that "while science as a process only requires methodological naturalism, I think that the assumption of methodological naturalism by scientists and others logically and morally entails ontological naturalism."[1] as well as the similarly controversial assertion: "I maintain that the practice or adoption of methodological naturalism entails a logical and moral belief in ontological naturalism, so they are not logically decoupled."[1] On the other hand, Scott argues:

that a clear distinction must be drawn between science as a way of knowing about the natural world and science as a foundation for philosophical views. One should be taught to our children in school, and the other can optionally be taught to our children at home. Once this view is explained, I have found far more support than disagreement among my university colleagues. Even someone who may disagree with my logic or understanding of philosophy of science often understands the strategic reasons for separating methodological from philosophical materialism — if we want more Americans to understand evolution.[5][8]

— Eugenie C. Scott, Science and Religion, Methodology and Humanism

However, there are other controversies, Arthur Newell Strahler embeds peculiar anthropic distinctions in the name of naturalism: "The naturalistic view is that the particular universe we observe came into existence and has operated through all time and in all its parts without the impetus or guidance of any supernatural agency. The naturalistic view is espoused by science as its fundamental assumption."[9] Variously known as background independence, the cosmological principle, the principle of universality, the principle of uniformity, or uniformitarianism, there are important philosophical assumptions that cannot be derived from nature. As noted by Stephen Jay Gould: "You cannot go to a rocky outcrop and observe either the constancy of nature's laws or the working of unknown processes, it works the other way around." You first assume these propositions and "then you go to the out crop of rock."[10][11] "The assumption of spatial and temporal invariance of natural laws is by no means unique to geology since it amounts to a warrant for inductive inference which, as Bacon showed nearly four hundred years ago, is the basic mode of reasoning in empirical science. Without assuming this spatial and temporal invariance, we have no basis for extrapolating from the known to the unknown and, therefore, no way of reaching general conclusions from a finite number of observations. (Since the assumption is itself vindicated by induction, it can in no way "prove" the validity of induction - an endeavor virtually abandoned after Hume demonstrated its futility two centuries ago)."[12] Gould also notes that natural processes such as Lyell's "uniformity of process" are an assumption: "As such, it is another a priori assumption shared by all scientists and not a statement about the empirical world."[13] Such assumptions across time and space are needed for scientists to extrapolate into the unobservable past, according to G.G. Simpson: "Uniformity is an unprovable postulate justified, or indeed required, on two grounds. First, nothing in our incomplete but extensive knowledge of history disagrees with it. Second, only with this postulate is a rational interpretation of history possible, and we are justified in seeking—as scientists we must seek—such a rational interpretation."[14] and according to R. Hooykaas: "The principle of uniformity is not a law, not a rule established after comparison of facts, but a principle, preceding the observation of facts . . . It is the logical principle of parsimony of causes and of economy of scientific notions. By explaining past changes by analogy with present phenomena, a limit is set to conjecture, for there is only one way in which two things are equal, but there are an infinity of ways in which they could be supposed different."[15]

Metaphysical naturalists argue that the scientific facts and theories that we have to explain the origins of the universe provide no evidence for supernatural beings or deities,[17] as Richard Carrier explains:

...no other worldview is directly and substantially supported by any scientific evidence, whereas all scientific evidence so far does support Metaphysical Naturalism, often directly, sometimes substantially. Though naturalism has not yet been proved, it is the best bet going.[17]

One might say that either it has always existed or it had a purely natural origin, being neither created nor designed.

Since nature is all there is, and there was once no life, abiogenesis is implied: that life arose spontaneously from natural causes.[18][19] Naturalists reason about how, not if evolution happened, they maintain that humanity's existence is not by intelligent design but rather a natural process of emergence.

Metaphysical naturalists do not believe in a soul or spirit, nor in ghosts, and when explaining what constitutes the mind they rarely appeal to substance dualism. If one's mind, or rather one's identity and existence as a person, is entirely the product of natural processes, three conclusions follow according to W.T. Stace. First, all mental contents (such as ideas, theories, emotions, moral and personal values, or aesthetic response) exist solely as computational constructions of one's brain and genetics, not as things that exist independently of these. Second, damage to the brain (regardless of how) should be of great concern. Third, death or destruction of one's brain cannot be survived, which is to say, all humans are mortal. Stace, however, believes that ecstatic mysticism calls into question the assumption that awareness is impossible without data processing.[23]

Metaphysical naturalists hold that reason is the refinement and improvement of naturally evolved faculties, the certitude of deductive logic remains unexplained by this essentially probabilistic view. Nevertheless, naturalists believe anyone who wishes to have more beliefs that are true than are false should seek to perfect and consistently employ their reason in testing and forming beliefs. Empirical methods (especially those of proven use in the sciences) are unsurpassed for discovering the facts of reality, while methods of pure reason alone can securely discover logical errors.[24]

Humans are social animals, which is why humanity developed culture and civilization; in terms of evolution, this means that differential reproductive success somehow depended on traits that permit the development and maintenance of a healthy and productive culture and civilization.[citation needed]

Metaphysical naturalism appears to have originated in early Greek philosophy, the earliest presocratic philosophers, such as Thales, Anaxagoras or especially the atomistDemocritus, were labeled by their peers and successors "the physikoi" (from the Greek φυσικός or physikos, meaning "natural philosopher," borrowing on the word φύσις or physis, meaning "nature") because they investigated natural causes, often excluding any role for gods in the creation or operation of the world. This eventually led to fully developed systems such as Epicureanism, which sought to explain everything that exists as the product of atoms falling and swerving in a void.

Plato's world of eternal and unchanging Forms, imperfectly represented in matter by a divine Artisan, contrasts sharply with the various mechanistic Weltanschauungen, of which atomism was, by the fourth century at least, the most prominent... This debate was to persist throughout the ancient world. Atomistic mechanism got a shot in the arm from Epicurus... while the Stoics adopted a divine teleology... The choice seems simple: either show how a structured, regular world could arise out of undirected processes, or inject intelligence into the system, this was how Aristotle (384–322 bc), when still a young acolyte of Plato, saw matters. Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods 2. 95 = Fr. 12) preserves Aristotle's own cave-image: if troglodytes were brought on a sudden into the upper world, they would immediately suppose it to have been intelligently arranged. But Aristotle grew to abandon this view; although he believes in a divine being, the Prime Mover is not the efficient cause of action in the Universe, and plays no part in constructing or arranging it... But, although he rejects the divine Artificer, Aristotle does not resort to a pure mechanism of random forces. Instead he seeks to find a middle way between the two positions, one which relies heavily on the notion of Nature, or phusis.[25]

— R. J. Hankinson, Cause and Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought

Metaphysical naturalism is most notably a Western phenomenon, but an equivalent idea has long existed in the East. Though unnamed and never articulated into a coherent system, one tradition within Confucian philosophy embraced a form of metaphysical naturalism dating to the Wang Chong in the 1st century, if not earlier, but it arose independently and had little influence on the development of modern naturalist philosophy or on Eastern or Western culture.

According to David Papineau, contemporary naturalism is a consequence of the build-up of scientific evidence during the twentieth century for the "causal closure of the physical", the doctrine that all physical effects can be accounted for by physical causes.[26]

By the middle of the twentieth century, the acceptance of the causal closure of the physical realm led to even stronger naturalist views, the causal closure thesis implies that any mental and biological causes must themselves be physically constituted, if they are to produce physical effects. It thus gives rise to a particularly strong form of ontological naturalism, namely the physicalist doctrine that any state that has physical effects must itself be physical.

From the 1950s onwards, philosophers began to formulate arguments for ontological physicalism. Some of these arguments appealed explicitly to the causal closure of the physical realm (Feigl 1958, Oppenheim and Putnam 1958); in other cases, the reliance on causal closure lay below the surface. However, it is not hard to see that even in these latter cases the causal closure thesis played a crucial role.[30]

— David Papineau, "Naturalism" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

A number of politicized versions of naturalism have arisen in the Western world, most notably Marxism in the 19th century and Objectivism in the 20th century. Marxism is an expression of communist or socialist materialism within a naturalistic framework. Objectivism is an expression of capitalistidealism within a naturalistic framework. Most proponents of metaphysical naturalism in First World countries, however, are neither Marxists nor Objectivists, and instead embrace the more moderate political ideals of secular humanism or cultural moral relativism.

In the context of creation and evolution debates, Internet Infidels co-founder Jeffery Jay Lowder argues against what he calls "the argument from bias", that a priori, the supernatural is merely ruled out due to an unexamined stipulation. Lowder believes "there are good empirical reasons for believing that metaphysical naturalism is true, and therefore a denial of the supernatural need not be based upon an a priori assumption".[31]

Several Metaphysical Naturalists have used the trends in scientific discoveries about minds to argue that no supernatural minds exist, for instance, Lowder says, "Since all known mental activity has a physical basis, there are probably no disembodied minds. But God is conceived of as a disembodied mind. Therefore, God probably does not exist."[32] Lowder argues the correlation between mind and brain implies that supernatural souls do not exist because the theist position, according to Lowder, is that the mind depends upon this soul instead of the brain.[31]

[Elegance] goes directly to the question of how the laws of nature are constructed. Nobody knows the answer to that. Nobody! It's a perfectly legitimate hypothesis, in my view, to say that some extremely elegant creator made those laws. But I think if you go down that road, you must have the courage to ask the next question, which is: Where did that creator come from? And where did his, her, or its elegance come from? And if you say it was always there, then why not say that the laws of nature were always there and save a step?[33]

There is no plausible reason why an Almighty would need billions of years and trillions of galaxies to accomplish his ends through long, deterministic causal processes, but that is exactly what we should expect if there is no god, but only nature.[34]

Plantinga argues that together, naturalism and evolution provide an insurmountable "defeater for the belief that our cognitive faculties are reliable", i.e., a skeptical argument along the lines of Descartes' Evil demon or Brain in a vat.[38]

Take philosophical naturalism to be the belief that there aren't any supernatural entities--no such person as God, for example, but also no other supernatural entities, and nothing at all like God. My claim was that naturalism and contemporary evolutionary theory are at serious odds with one another--and this despite the fact that the latter is ordinarily thought to be one of the main pillars supporting the edifice of the former. (Of course I am not attacking the theory of evolution, or anything in that neighborhood; I am instead attacking the conjunction of naturalism with the view that human beings have evolved in that way. I see no similar problems with the conjunction of theism and the idea that human beings have evolved in the way contemporary evolutionary science suggests.) More particularly, I argued that the conjunction of naturalism with the belief that we human beings have evolved in conformity with current evolutionary doctrine… is in a certain interesting way self-defeating or self-referentially incoherent.[38]

Branden Fitelson of the University of California, Berkeley and Elliott Sober of the University of Wisconsin–Madison argue that Plantinga must show that the combination of evolution and naturalism also defeats the more modest claim that "at least a non-negligible minority of our beliefs are true", and that defects such as cognitive bias are nonetheless consistent with being made in the image of a rational God. Whereas evolutionary science already acknowledges that cognitive processes are unreliable, including the fallibility of the scientific enterprise itself, Plantinga's hyperbolic doubt is no more a defeater for naturalism than it is for theistic metaphysics founded upon a non-deceiving God who designed the human mind: "[neither] can construct a non-question-begging argument that refutes global skepticism."[39] Plantinga's argument has also been criticized by philosopherDaniel Dennett and historian Richard Carrier who argue that a cognitive apparatus for truth-finding can result from natural selection.[40]

In the third chapter, Feser summarizes three of Thomas Aquinas's arguments for the existence of God,[44] these include arguments for an unmoved mover,[45] first, uncaused cause [46] and (supernatural) supreme intelligence,[47] concluding that these must exist not as a matter of probability - as in the intelligent design view, particularly of irreducible complexity[48] - but as a necessary consequence of "obvious, though empirical, starting points".[49]

^Stone 2008, p. 2 "Personally, I place great emphasis on the phrase "in principle", since there are many things that science does not now explain. And perhaps we need some natural piety concerning the ontological limit question as to why there is anything at all, but the idea that naturalism is a polemical notion is important".

^"Since philosophy is at least implicitly at the core of every decision we make or position we take, it is obvious that correct philosophy is a necessity for scientific inquiry to take place." (A.Sergei 2000)

^Schafersman, Steven D. (1996). "Naturalism is Today An Essential Part of Science". Section "The Origin of Naturalism and Its Relation to Science". Naturalism did not exist as a philosophy before the nineteenth century, but only as an occasionally adopted and non-rigorous method among natural philosophers. It is a unique philosophy in that it is not ancient or prior to science, and that it developed largely due to the influence of science.

^Papineau, David (2007). "Naturalism". In Edward N. Zalta. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It thus gives rise to a particularly strong form of ontological naturalism, namely the physicalist doctrine that any state that has physical effects must itself be physical.

According to Richard Dawkins, 'It is absolutely safe to say that, if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid, or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that).' Daniel Dennett goes Dawkins one (or two) further: 'Anyone today who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of evolution is simply ignorant—inexcusably ignorant.' You wake up in the middle of the night; you think, can that whole Darwinian story really be true? Wham! You are inexcusably ignorant.

I do think that evolution has become a modern idol of the tribe. But of course it doesn't even begin to follow that I think the scientific theory of evolution is false. And I don't.

Secular humanism
–
Secular humanism posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god. It does not, however, assume that humans are inherently evil or innately good. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity, along with this, an essential part of secular humanism is a continually adap

1.
George Holyoake coined the term 'secularism' and led the secular movement in Britain from the mid 19th century.

Freethought
–
In particular, freethought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional religious belief. The cognitive application of freethought is known as freethinking, and practitioners of freethought are known as freethinkers, the term first came into use in the 17th century in order to indicate people who inquired into the basis of traditional religious b

Criticism of religion
–
Criticism of religion is criticism of the ideas, the truth, or the practice of religion, including its political and social implications. Historical records of criticism of religion goes back to at least 5th century BCE, in ancient Greece, in ancient Rome, an early known example is Lucretius De Rerum Natura from the 1st century BCE. Criticism of re

1.
A sign that criticizes religion and draws attention to the September 11 attacks, by the Connecticut Valley Atheists in Rockville's Central Park, Vernon in December 2007. The group issued an explanatory press release, stating: "Clearly, 9/11 is the work of fanatics. However, we feel that religion even in moderation provides a foundation for fanatical groups to thrive."

Parody religion
–
A parody religion or mock religion is a belief system that challenges spiritual convictions of others, often through humor, satire, or burlesque. In some parody religions, emphasis is on having fun and being a convenient excuse for pleasant social interaction among the like-minded, other parody religions target a specific religion, sect, cult, or n

Atheism
–
Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is the rejection of belief that any deities exist, in an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one

2.
Epicurus is credited with first expounding the problem of evil. David Hume in his Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (1779) cited Epicurus in stating the argument as a series of questions: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

History of atheism
–
Atheism is the absence or rejection of the belief that deities exist. The English term was used at least as early as the century and atheistic ideas. Over the centuries, atheists have supported their lack of belief in gods through a variety of avenues, including scientific, philosophical, within the astika schools of Hindu philosophy, the Samkhya a

1.
The Dutch philosoper Baruch Spinoza contended in the 17th century that God did not interfere in the running of the world, but rather that natural laws explained the workings of the universe.

Demographics of atheism
–
Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism vary across different cultures. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, 2% of the worlds population self-identifies as atheist, according to sociologist Phil Zuckerman, broad estimates of those who have an absence of belief in a god range from 500 to 750 million

1.
Michael Newdow speaks at the Atheist Alliance International Convention. Members of secular groups are very likely to be atheists, but also more willing to hold unpopular views and explore new ideas thoroughly.

Discrimination against atheists
–
Discrimination against atheists may also refer to and comprise the negative attitudes towards, prejudice, hostility, hatred, fear, and/or intolerance towards atheists and/or atheism. As atheism can be defined in various ways, those discriminated against or persecuted on the grounds of being atheists might not have considered as such in a different

2.
Countries in which, as of 2007, apostasy of the local or state religion was punishable by execution under national (black) or regional (dark gray) law. Currently, this occurs only in Islamic nations.

Criticism of atheism
–
Criticism of atheism is criticism of the concepts, validity, or impact of atheism, including associated political and social implications. Various contemporary agnostics like Carl Sagan and theists such as Dinesh DSouza have criticised atheism for being an unscientific position, oxford Professor of Mathematics John Lennox holds that atheism is an i

Implicit and explicit atheism
–
Implicit atheism and explicit atheism are types of atheism coined by George H. Smith. Implicit atheism is defined as the absence of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it, explicit atheists have considered the idea of deities and have rejected belief that any exist. Implicit atheists, though they do not themselves maintain a belief in

1.
on right

Negative and positive atheism
–
The terms negative atheism and positive atheism were used by Antony Flew in 1976 and have appeared in Michael Martins writings since 1990. For example, the God of classical theism is often considered to be a supreme being who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Positive explicit atheists assert that it is false that any deities exist, negative

1.
on right

New Atheism
–
New Atheism, also called evangelical atheism or is a movement promoted by some atheists of the twenty-first century. The phrase New Atheism was coined by Gary Wolf in a 2006 article in Wired magazine, darwins supporter Thomas Huxley was openly skeptical, as the biographer Janet Browne describes, Huxley was rampaging on miracles and the existence of

State atheism
–
State atheism is a popular term used for a government that is either antireligious, antitheistic or promotes atheism. In contrast, a secular state purports to be neutral in matters of religion. State promotion of atheism as a public norm first came to prominence in Revolutionary France, Revolutionary Mexico followed similar policies from 1917, as d

1.
USSR. 1922 issue of the Bezbozhnik (The Godless) magazine. By 1934, 28% of Eastern Orthodox churches, 42% of Muslim mosques and 52% of Jewish synagogues were shut down in the USSR.

Christian atheism
–
Hamiltons Christian atheism is similar to Jesuism. He contends that it is impossible to think about God, van Buren says that We cannot identify anything which will count for or against the truth of our statements concerning God. The inference from these claims to the either meaningless or misleading conclusion is implicitly premised on the verifica

Agnosticism
–
Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the existence of God or the supernatural are unknown and unknowable. Agnosticism is a doctrine or set of rather than a religion. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rigveda is agnostic about the origin of the universe. Agnosticism is of the esse

Strong agnosticism
–
Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the existence of God or the supernatural are unknown and unknowable. Agnosticism is a doctrine or set of rather than a religion. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rigveda is agnostic about the origin of the universe. Agnosticism is of the esse

Weak agnosticism
–
Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the existence of God or the supernatural are unknown and unknowable. Agnosticism is a doctrine or set of rather than a religion. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rigveda is agnostic about the origin of the universe. Agnosticism is of the esse

Agnostic theism
–
Agnostic theism is the philosophical view that encompasses both theism and agnosticism. An agnostic theist believes in the existence of a god or God and it can also mean that there is one high ruler, but it is unknowable or unknown who or what it is. The agnostic theist may also or alternatively be agnostic regarding the properties of God, there ar

1.
Agnostic theism is belief but without knowledge, as shown in purple and blue (see Epistemology).

Christian agnosticism
–
Christian Agnostics practice a distinct form of agnosticism that applies only to the properties of God. They hold that it is difficult or impossible to be sure of anything beyond the basic tenets of the Christian faith and they believe that God exists, that Jesus has a special relationship with him and is in some way divine, and that God should be

Apatheism
–
Apatheism is the philosophical view that one should be apathetic towards the existence or non-existence of god. It is more of a rather than a belief, claim or belief system. An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or rejecting any claims that gods exist or do not exist, an apatheist may thus decide to live as if there are no gods

1.
18th Century French philosopher Denis Diderot, when accused of being an atheist, replied that he simply did not care whether God existed or not.

List of agnostics
–
Listed here are persons who have identified themselves as theologically agnostic. Also included are individuals who have expressed the view that the veracity of an existence is unknown or inherently unknowable. Saul Alinsky, American community organizer and writer and he is often noted for his book Rules for Radicals. Poul Anderson, American scienc

Flying Spaghetti Monster
–
According to adherents, Pastafarianism is a real, legitimate religion, as much as any other. In the United States the same month, a judge ruled that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not a real religion. Pastafarianism has received praise from the community and criticism from proponents of intelligent design. The central belief is that

1.
Touched by His Noodly Appendage, a parody of Michelangelo 's The Creation of Adam, is an iconic image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Arne Niklas Jansson.

Invisible Pink Unicorn
–
The Invisible Pink Unicorn is the goddess of a parody religion used to satirize theistic beliefs, taking the form of a unicorn that is paradoxically both invisible and pink. She is an illustration used by atheists and other religious skeptics as a contemporary version of Russells teapot. The IPU is used to argue that beliefs are arbitrary by, for e

1.
A depiction of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, in the style of a heraldic animal springing

Nontheistic religions
–
Nontheistic religions are traditions of thought within religions—some otherwise aligned with theism, others not—in which nontheism informs religious beliefs or practices. Nontheism has been applied to the fields of Christian apologetics and general liberal theology, while many approaches to religion exclude nontheism by definition, there are some i

Pantheism
–
Pantheism is the belief that all reality is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god. The term pantheism was not coined until after Spinozas death, and his work, Ethics, was the major source from which Western pantheism spread. Panthei

1.
The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is often regarded as pantheism, although he did not use that term.

3.
Levi Ponce 's "Luminaries of Pantheism" in Venice, California for The Paradise Project, "dedicated to celebrating and spreading awareness about pantheism."

Religious naturalism
–
Religious naturalism combines a naturalist worldview with perceptions and values commonly associated with religions. Areas of inquiry include attempts to understand the world and the spiritual and moral implications of naturalist views. Understanding is based in knowledge obtained through scientific inquiry and insights from the humanities, Religio

1.
The interconnectivity of nature is a key postulate in religious naturalism.

List of deists
–
They have been selected for their influence on Deism, or for their fame in other areas. Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth president of the United States of America and he never joined any church but can be described as a Christian deist but was a skeptic as a young man and sometimes ridiculed revivalists. As a young man, Lincoln enjoyed reading the works

List of secular humanists
–
This is a partial list of notable secular humanists. Clark Adams, former president of the Humanist Association of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, and he is famous for the seminal paper on Big Bang nucleosynthesis called the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper. Nayef Al-Rodhan, philosopher, neuroscientist and geostrategist, author of Sustainable History and the

List of pantheists
–
Pantheism is the belief that the universe is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god. Some Eastern religions are considered to be pantheistic, nammalvar, one of the twelve Alvars. Lao Tzu, name given to the writer of the Tao Te Ching.

Ethics (Spinoza)
–
Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order, usually known as the Ethics, is a philosophical treatise written by Benedict de Spinoza. It was written between 1664 and 1665 and was first published in 1677, the book is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to apply the method of Euclid in philosophy. The first part of the addresses the relationship between

The End of Faith
–
Harris began writing the book in what he described as a period of collective grief and stupefaction following the September 11,2001 attacks. The book comprises a wide-ranging criticism of all styles of religious belief, the book was first published August 11,2004, and it was awarded the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction the following ye

1.
The End of Faith

The God Delusion
–
He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsigs statement in Lila that when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion, with many examples, he explains that one does not need religion to be moral and that the roots of religion and of morality can be explained in non-religious terms. I

1.
First edition cover

God Is Not Great
–
God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything is a 2007 book by Anglo-American author and journalist Christopher Hitchens, in which he makes a case against organized religion. It was published by Atlantic Books in the United Kingdom as God Is Not Great and he supports his position with a mixture of personal stories, documented historical anecdo

1.
God Is Not Great

The System of Nature
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The System of Nature or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World is a work of philosophy by Paul Henri Thiry, Baron dHolbach. It was originally published under the name of Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud, most notoriously, the work explicitly denies the existence of God, arguing that belief in a higher being is the product of fear, lack of understanding

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Opening page of The System of Nature.

Letter to a Christian Nation
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Letter to a Christian Nation is a book by Sam Harris, written in response to feedback he received following the publication of his first book The End of Faith. The book is written in the form of a letter to a Christian in the United States. Harris states that his aim is to demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most

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Letter to a Christian Nation

Why I Am Not a Muslim
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Why I Am Not a Muslim, a book written by Ibn Warraq, is a critique of Islam and the Quran. It was first published by Prometheus Books in the United States in 1995, the title of the book is a homage to Bertrand Russells essay, Why I Am Not a Christian, in which Russell criticizes the religion in which he was raised. The authors polemic criticizes Is

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Why I Am Not a Muslim

List of secularist organizations
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The term secularism, as coined and promulgated by George Jacob Holyoake, originally referred to such a view. Secularism may also refer to the belief that government should be neutral on matters of religion, the term is here used in the first sense, though most organizations listed here also support secularism in the second sense. Secularists, and t

Atheist Alliance International
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Atheist Alliance International is a global federation of atheist organizations and individuals, committed to educating the public about atheism, secularism and related issues. AAI was founded in 1991 as Atheist Alliance, an alliance of four U. S. -based local atheist groups. Over time Atheist Alliance expanded, adding both local/regional U. S. grou

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Generic atheist symbol, the result of a 2007 AAI contest, created by Diane Reed.

Freedom From Religion Foundation
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The Freedom From Religion Foundation is an American non-profit organization based in Madison, Wisconsin with members from all 50 states. The largest national organization advocating for non-theists, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state and educates the public on matters relating to atheism, agnosticism, the FFRF publishes a newspaper, F

Reason Rally
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The first rally was sponsored by major atheistic and secular organizations of the United States and was regarded as a Woodstock for atheists and skeptics. The punk rock band Bad Religion performed and other notables addressed the crowd by video link, participants recited the Pledge of Allegiance, deliberately omitting the phrase under God, which wa

World Pantheist Movement
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The World Pantheist Movement is the worlds largest organization of people associated with pantheism, a philosophy which asserts that spirituality should be centered on nature. The WPM promotes strict naturalistic pantheism without belief in any supernatural beings, realms, the WPM grew out of a mailing list started by Paul Harrison in 1997, arising

Secularism
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Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. Another manifestation of secularism is the view that public activities and decisions, especially political ones, the purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely.

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The Italian law professor Alberico Gentili (1587–1608) has been the first to divide the secularism from canon law and Roman Catholic theology.

List of religions and spiritual traditions
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Religion is a collection of cultural systems, beliefs and world views that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes to moral values. While religion is hard to define, one model of religion, used in religious studies courses, was proposed by Clifford Geertz. A critique of Geertzs model by Talal Asad categorized religio

Natural
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Nature, in the broadest sense, is the natural, physical, or material world or universe. Nature can refer to the phenomena of the world. The study of nature is a part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura,

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View of the Earth, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17astronaut crew. This image is the only photograph of its kind to date, showing a fully sunlit hemisphere of the Earth.

Natural sciences
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Natural science is a branch of science concerned with the description, prediction, and understanding of natural phenomena, based on observational and empirical evidence. Mechanisms such as review and repeatability of findings are used to try to ensure the validity of scientific advances. Natural science can be divided into two branches, life scienc

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Plato (left) and Aristotle in a 1509 painting by Raphael. Plato rejected inquiry into natural philosophy as against religion, while his student, Aristotle, created a body of work on the natural world that influenced generations of scholars.

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Isaac Newton is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time.

Ontology
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Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence or reality as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Although ontology as an enterprise is highly hypothetical, it also has practical application in information science and technology. Some philosophers, notably of the Platonic school, contend that a

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Parmenides was among the first to propose an ontological characterization of the fundamental nature of reality.

Spiritual naturalism
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Long before the term Spiritual Naturalism was coined by Huysmans there is evidence of the value system of Spiritual Naturalism in the Stoics. Virtue consists in a will that is in agreement with Nature”, spirituality is an overarching concept related to religion and affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. It is

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Joris-Karl Huysmans

Supernatural
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One complicating factor is that there is disagreement about the definition of natural and the limits of naturalism. Concepts in the domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality. Sometimes we understand by nature the established course of things, as when we say that nature makes the night succeed the day, nature hath made respira

Religions
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Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason,

Existence
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Existence is commonly held to be that which objectively persists independent of ones presence. Ontology is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being. In mathematics, existence is asserted by a quantifier, the existential quantifier, the properties of the existential quantifier are

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Cliff at the east of Siccar Point showing the near-horizontal red sandstone layers above vertically tilted greywacke rocks.

Scientific method

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Johannes Kepler (1571–1630). "Kepler shows his keen logical sense in detailing the whole process by which he finally arrived at the true orbit. This is the greatest piece of Retroductive reasoning ever performed." – C. S. Peirce, c. 1896, on Kepler's reasoning through explanatory hypotheses

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Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), 965–1039 Iraq. A polymath, considered by some to be the father of modern scientific methodology, due to his emphasis on experimental data and reproducibility of its results.

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According to Morris Kline, "Modern science owes its present flourishing state to a new scientific method which was fashioned almost entirely by Galileo Galilei " (1564−1642). Dudley Shapere takes a more measured view of Galileo's contribution.

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Secular humanism
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Secular humanism posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god. It does not, however, assume that humans are inherently evil or innately good. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity, along with this, an essential part of secular humanism is a continually adapting search for truth, primarily through science and philosophy. Many secular humanists derive their moral codes from a philosophy of utilitarianism, ethical naturalism, or evolutionary ethics, the Happy Human is the official symbol of the IHEU as well as being regarded as a universally recognised symbol for those who call themselves Humanists. Secular humanist organizations are found in all parts of the world and those who call themselves humanists are estimated to number between four and five million people worldwide. The meaning of the phrase secular humanism has evolved over time, the phrase has been used since at least the 1930s, and in 1943, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, was reported as warning that the Christian tradition. Was in danger of being undermined by a Secular Humanism which hoped to retain Christian values without Christian faith, the release in 1980 of A Secular Humanist Declaration by the newly formed Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism gave secular humanism an organisational identity within the United States. However, many adherents of the approach reject the use of the secular as obfuscating and confusing. All too often secular humanism is reduced to a sterile outlook consisting of more than secularism slightly broadened by academic ethics. This kind of hyphenated humanism easily becomes more about the adjective than its referent, adherents of this view, including the International Humanist and Ethical Union and the American Humanist Association, consider that the unmodified but capitalised word Humanism should be used. The endorsement by the IHEU of the capitalization of the word Humanism, the American Humanist Association began to adopt this view in 1973, and the IHEU formally endorsed the position in 1989. In 2002 the IHEU General Assembly unanimously adopted the Amsterdam Declaration and this declaration makes exclusive use of capitalized Humanist and Humanism, which is consistent with IHEUs general practice and recommendations for promoting a unified Humanist identity. To further promote Humanist identity, these words are also free of any adjectives, such usage is not universal among IHEU member organizations, though most of them do observe these conventions. Historical use of the humanism, is related to the writings of pre-Socratic philosophers. These writings were lost to European societies until Renaissance scholars rediscovered them through Muslim sources, in 1851 George Holyoake coined the term secularism to describe a form of opinion which concerns itself only with questions, the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this life. The modern secular movement coalesced around Holyoake, Charles Bradlaugh and their intellectual circle, the first secular society, the Leicester Secular Society, dates from 1851. Similar regional societies came together to form the National Secular Society in 1866, holyoakes secularism was strongly influenced by Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism and of modern sociology. Comte believed human history would progress in a law of three stages from a phase, to the metaphysical, toward a fully rational positivist society

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Freethought
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In particular, freethought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional religious belief. The cognitive application of freethought is known as freethinking, and practitioners of freethought are known as freethinkers, the term first came into use in the 17th century in order to indicate people who inquired into the basis of traditional religious beliefs. Freethinkers hold that knowledge should be grounded in facts, scientific inquiry, the skeptical application of science implies freedom from the intellectually limiting effects of confirmation bias, cognitive bias, conventional wisdom, popular culture, prejudice, or sectarianism. The essay became a cry for freethinkers when published in the 1870s. Clifford was himself an organizer of freethought gatherings, the force behind the Congress of Liberal Thinkers held in 1878. Regarding religion, freethinkers hold that there is insufficient evidence to support the existence of supernatural phenomena. According to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, to the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth. And Freethinkers are convinced that religious claims have not withstood the tests of reason, not only is there nothing to be gained by believing an untruth, but there is everything to lose when we sacrifice the indispensable tool of reason on the altar of superstition. Most freethinkers consider religion to be not only untrue, but harmful, however, philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote the following in his 1944 essay The Value of Free Thought, What makes a freethinker is not his beliefs but the way in which he holds them. To be worthy of the name, he must be free of two things, the force of tradition, and the tyranny of his own passions. No one is free from either, but in the measure of a mans emancipation he deserves to be called a free thinker. On the other hand, according to Bertrand Russell, atheists and/or agnostics are not necessarily freethinkers. As an example, he mentions Stalin, whom he compares to a pope, what I am concerned with is the doctrine of the modern Communistic Party, and of the Russian Government to which it owes allegiance. In the 18th and 19th century, many regarded as freethinkers were deists. In the 18th century, deism was as much of a dirty word as atheism, deists today regard themselves as freethinkers, but are now arguably less prominent in the freethought movement than atheists. The pansy serves as the long-established and enduring symbol of freethought, the reasoning behind the pansy as the symbol of freethought lies both in the flowers name and in its appearance. The pansy derives its name from the French word pensée, which means thought and it allegedly received this name because the flower is perceived by some to bear resemblance to a human face, and in mid-to-late summer it nods forward as if deep in thought. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed, Do What Thou Wilt, when Rabelaiss hero Pantagruel journeys to the Oracle of The Dive Bottle, he learns the lesson of life in one simple word, Trinch

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Criticism of religion
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Criticism of religion is criticism of the ideas, the truth, or the practice of religion, including its political and social implications. Historical records of criticism of religion goes back to at least 5th century BCE, in ancient Greece, in ancient Rome, an early known example is Lucretius De Rerum Natura from the 1st century BCE. Criticism of religion is complicated by the fact that there exist multiple definitions, every exclusive religion on Earth that promotes exclusive truth claims necessarily denigrates the truth claims of other religions. Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, during this time period, contact with numerous foreign and indigenous cultures with non-European languages, that did not have equivalent concepts or words for religion, became more common. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Many languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities. One of its central concepts is halakha, meaning the walk or path sometimes translated as law, which guides religious practice and belief and many aspects of daily life. Lucretius, like Epicurus, felt that religion was born of fear and ignorance, and he was not against religion in and of itself, but against traditional religion which he saw as superstition for teaching that gods interfered with the world. Niccolò Machiavelli, at the beginning of the 16th century said, We Italians are irreligious, because the church and her representatives have set us the worst example. To Machiavelli, religion was merely a tool, useful for a ruler wishing to manipulate public opinion, in the 18th century Voltaire was a deist and was strongly critical of religious intolerance. Voltaire claimed the reason for these killings was that Christians wanted to plunder the wealth of those killed. Voltaire was also critical of Muslim intolerance, also in the 18th century David Hume criticised teleological arguments for religion. Hume claimed that explanations for the order in the universe were reasonable. Demonstrating the unsoundness of the basis for religion was an important aim of Humes writings

Criticism of religion
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A sign that criticizes religion and draws attention to the September 11 attacks, by the Connecticut Valley Atheists in Rockville's Central Park, Vernon in December 2007. The group issued an explanatory press release, stating: "Clearly, 9/11 is the work of fanatics. However, we feel that religion even in moderation provides a foundation for fanatical groups to thrive."
Criticism of religion
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Christopher Hitchens, journalist and author of God is not Great
Criticism of religion
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Karl Marx

4.
Parody religion
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A parody religion or mock religion is a belief system that challenges spiritual convictions of others, often through humor, satire, or burlesque. In some parody religions, emphasis is on having fun and being a convenient excuse for pleasant social interaction among the like-minded, other parody religions target a specific religion, sect, cult, or new religious movement. An example of this is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which parodies the equal time argument employed by intelligent design, a few US states have permitted The Church of the Latter-Day Dude or Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster officiants to legally solemnise marriage. Parody religions also have sought the same reasonable accommodation legally afforded to mainstream religions, for instance, in Discordianism, it can be hard to tell whether even these serious followers are not just taking part in an even bigger joke. This joke, in turn, might be part of a path to enlightenment. I just believe in one fewer god than you do, when you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. Dawkins also created a parody of the criticism of atheism, coining the term athorism, the intention is to emphasize the claim that atheism is not a form of religious creed, but instead merely denial of beliefs. A common challenge against atheism is the idea that atheism is itself a form of faith, the theist might say No one can prove that God does not exist, therefore an atheist is exercising faith by asserting that there is no God. Dawkins argues that by replacing the word God with Thor one should see that the assertion is fallacious, the burden of proof, he claims, rests upon the believer in the supernatural, not upon the non-believer who considers such things unlikely. Athorism is an attempt to illustrate through absurdity that there is no difference between disbelieving any particular religion. A subreddit for those who wish to discuss the subject of Parody Religion

5.
Atheism
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Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is the rejection of belief that any deities exist, in an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists, the etymological root for the word atheism originated before the 5th century BCE from the ancient Greek ἄθεος, meaning without god. The term denoted a social category created by orthodox religionists into which those who did not share their religious beliefs were placed, the actual term atheism emerged first in the 16th century. With the spread of freethought, skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion, application of the term narrowed in scope, the first individuals to identify themselves using the word atheist lived in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment. The French Revolution, noted for its unprecedented atheism, witnessed the first major movement in history to advocate for the supremacy of human reason. Arguments for atheism range from the philosophical to social and historical approaches, although some atheists have adopted secular philosophies, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere. Since conceptions of atheism vary, accurate estimations of current numbers of atheists are difficult, an older survey by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2004 recorded atheists as comprising 8% of the worlds population. Other older estimates have indicated that atheists comprise 2% of the worlds population, according to these polls, Europe and East Asia are the regions with the highest rates of atheism. In 2015, 61% of people in China reported that they were atheists, the figures for a 2010 Eurobarometer survey in the European Union reported that 20% of the EU population claimed not to believe in any sort of spirit, God or life force. Atheism has been regarded as compatible with agnosticism, and has also been contrasted with it, a variety of categories have been used to distinguish the different forms of atheism. Some of the ambiguity and controversy involved in defining atheism arises from difficulty in reaching a consensus for the definitions of words like deity, the plurality of wildly different conceptions of God and deities leads to differing ideas regarding atheisms applicability. The ancient Romans accused Christians of being atheists for not worshiping the pagan deities, gradually, this view fell into disfavor as theism came to be understood as encompassing belief in any divinity. Definitions of atheism also vary in the degree of consideration a person must put to the idea of gods to be considered an atheist, Atheism has sometimes been defined to include the simple absence of belief that any deities exist. This broad definition would include newborns and other people who have not been exposed to theistic ideas, as far back as 1772, Baron dHolbach said that All children are born Atheists, they have no idea of God. Similarly, George H. Smith suggested that, The man who is unacquainted with theism is an atheist because he does not believe in a god. This category would include the child with the conceptual capacity to grasp the issues involved. The fact that this child does not believe in god qualifies him as an atheist, ernest Nagel contradicts Smiths definition of atheism as merely absence of theism, acknowledging only explicit atheism as true atheism

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History of atheism
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Atheism is the absence or rejection of the belief that deities exist. The English term was used at least as early as the century and atheistic ideas. Over the centuries, atheists have supported their lack of belief in gods through a variety of avenues, including scientific, philosophical, within the astika schools of Hindu philosophy, the Samkhya and the early Mimamsa school did not accept a creator-deity in their respective systems. Philosophical atheist thought began to appear in Europe and Asia in the sixth or fifth century BCE, will Durant, in his The Story of Civilization, explained that certain pygmy tribes found in Africa were observed to have no identifiable cults or rites. There were no totems, no deities, and no spirits and their dead were buried without special ceremonies or accompanying items and received no further attention. They even appeared to lack simple superstitions, according to travelers reports, the Vedas of Ceylon admitted only the possibility that deities might exist but went no further. Neither prayers nor sacrifices were suggested in any way by the tribes and these religions claim to offer a philosophic and salvific path not involving deity worship. Deities are not seen as necessary to the goal of the early Buddhist tradition, their reality is explicitly questioned. There is a fundamental incompatibility between the notion of gods and basic Buddhist principles, at least in many interpretations, within the astika schools of Hindu philosophy, the Samkhya and the early Mimamsa school did not accept a creator-deity in their respective systems. The principal text of the Samkhya school, the Samkhya Karika, was written by Ishvara Krishna in the fourth century CE, the origins of the school are much older and are lost in legend. The school was both dualistic and atheistic and they believed in a dual existence of Prakriti and Purusha and had no place for an Ishvara in its system, arguing that the existence of Ishvara cannot be proved and hence cannot be admitted to exist. The school dominated Hindu philosophy in its day, but declined after the tenth century, the foundational text for the Mimamsa school is the Purva Mimamsa Sutras of Jaimini. The school reached its height c.700 CE, and for time in the Early Middle Ages exerted near-dominant influence on learned Hindu thought. The Mimamsa school saw their primary enquiry was into the nature of dharma based on interpretation of the Vedas. Its core tenets were ritualism, antiasceticism and antimysticism, the early Mimamsakas believed in an adrishta that is the result of performing karmas and saw no need for an Ishvara in their system. Mimamsa persists in some subschools of Hinduism today, jains see their tradition as eternal. Organized Jainism can be dated back to Parshva who lived in the ninth century BCE, and, more reliably, to Mahavira, a teacher of the sixth century BCE, Jainism is a dualistic religion with the universe made up of matter and souls. The universe, and the matter and souls within it, is eternal and uncreated, the school grew out of the generic skepticism in the Mauryan period

History of atheism
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The Dutch philosoper Baruch Spinoza contended in the 17th century that God did not interfere in the running of the world, but rather that natural laws explained the workings of the universe.
History of atheism
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Notre Dame of Strasbourg turned into a Temple of Reason
History of atheism
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Fête de la Raison ("Festival of Reason"), Notre Dame, 20 Brumaire (1793)

7.
Demographics of atheism
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Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism vary across different cultures. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, 2% of the worlds population self-identifies as atheist, according to sociologist Phil Zuckerman, broad estimates of those who have an absence of belief in a god range from 500 to 750 million people worldwide. Other estimates state that there are 200 million to 240 million self-identified atheists worldwide, with China, in Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands and East Asia, and particularly in China, atheists and the non-religious are the majority. The prevalence of atheism in Africa and South America typically falls below 10%, according to the Pew Research Centers 2012 global study of 230 countries and territories, 16% of the worlds population is not affiliated with a religion, while 84% are affiliated. Furthermore, the study noted that many of the unaffiliated. Historical records of atheist philosophy span several millennia, atheistic schools are found in early Indian thought and have existed from the times of the historical Vedic religion. Western atheism has its roots in pre-Socratic Greek philosophy, but did not emerge as a distinct world-view until the late Enlightenment, discrepancies exist among sources as to how atheist and religious demographics are changing. According to the 2012 Gallup International Survey, the number of atheists is on the rise across the world, the demographics of atheism are substantially difficult to quantify. Words like, God or atheism seldom translate well across cultures or languages, as such, it can be hard to draw boundaries between atheism, non-religious beliefs, and non-theistic religious and spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, atheists may not report themselves as such, to prevent suffering from social stigma, discrimination, because some governments have strongly promoted atheism and others have strongly condemned it, atheism may be either over-reported or under-reported for different countries. There is a deal of room for debate as to the accuracy of any method of estimation. Additionally, many of these surveys only gauge the number of people, not the number of actual atheists. For example, research indicates that the fastest growing religious status may be no religion in the United States, but this includes all kinds of atheists, agnostics, non-religious people make up 9. 66%, while one fifth of them are atheists. Statistics on atheism are difficult to represent accurately for a variety of reasons. Atheism is a compatible with other forms of identity including religions. Globally, some also consider themselves Agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, Jains, Taoist. Some, like Secular Jews and Shintoists, may indulge in some religious activities as a way of connecting with their culture, therefore, given limited poll options, some may use other terms to describe their identity. Some politically motivated organizations that report or gather population statistics may, intentionally or unintentionally, Survey designs may bias results due to the nature of elements such as the wording of questions and the available response options

Demographics of atheism
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Michael Newdow speaks at the Atheist Alliance International Convention. Members of secular groups are very likely to be atheists, but also more willing to hold unpopular views and explore new ideas thoroughly.

8.
Discrimination against atheists
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Discrimination against atheists may also refer to and comprise the negative attitudes towards, prejudice, hostility, hatred, fear, and/or intolerance towards atheists and/or atheism. As atheism can be defined in various ways, those discriminated against or persecuted on the grounds of being atheists might not have considered as such in a different time or place. As of 2015,19 countries punish their citizens for apostasy, in some Islamic countries, atheists face persecution and severe penalties such as the withdrawal of legal status or, in the case of apostasy, capital punishment. Sometimes such discrimination is called atheophobia, atheistophobia, anti-atheist discrimination, lucien Febvre has referred to the unthinkability of atheism in its strongest sense before the sixteenth century, because of the deep religiosity of that era. Karen Armstrong has concurred, writing from birth and baptism to death and burial in the churchyard, as governmental authority rested on the notion of divine right, it was threatened by those who denied the existence of the local god. Those labeled as atheist, including early Christians and Muslims, were as a result targeted for legal persecution, atheistic beliefs were seen as threatening to order and society by philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas. Lawyer and scholar Thomas More said that religious tolerance should be extended to all except those who did not believe in a deity or the immortality of the soul. John Locke, a founder of modern notions of religious liberty, during the Inquisition, several of those accused of atheism or blasphemy, or both, were tortured or executed. Though heralded as atheist martyrs during the century, recent scholars hold that the beliefs espoused by Dolet. During the nineteenth century, British atheists, though few in number, were subject to discriminatory practices, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from the University of Oxford and denied custody of his two children after publishing a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism. Those unwilling to swear Christian oaths during judicial proceedings were unable to give evidence in court to obtain justice until this requirement was repealed by Acts passed in 1869 and 1870, atheist Charles Bradlaugh was elected as a Member of the British Parliament in 1880. He was denied the right to affirm rather than swear his oath of office, Bradlaugh was re-elected three times before he was finally able to take his seat in 1886 when the Speaker of the House permitted him to take the oath. In Germany during the Nazi era, a 1933 decree stated that No National Socialist may suffer detriment, on the ground that he does not make any religious profession at all. During negotiations leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of April 26,1933 Hitler stated that Secular schools can never be tolerated because of their irreligious tendencies. Hitler routinely disregarded this undertaking, and the Reich concordat as a whole and by 1939, in a speech made later in 1933, Hitler claimed to have stamped out the atheistic movement. The word Hitler used in speech, Gottlosenbewegung, means Godless Movement in German. The historian Richard J. Evans wrote that, by 1939, 95% of Germans still called themselves Protestant or Catholic, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is designed to protect the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Signatories to the convention are barred from the use of threat of force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to recant their beliefs or convert

Discrimination against atheists
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Anti-atheist propaganda billboard posted in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in February 2008
Discrimination against atheists
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Countries in which, as of 2007, apostasy of the local or state religion was punishable by execution under national (black) or regional (dark gray) law. Currently, this occurs only in Islamic nations.

9.
Criticism of atheism
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Criticism of atheism is criticism of the concepts, validity, or impact of atheism, including associated political and social implications. Various contemporary agnostics like Carl Sagan and theists such as Dinesh DSouza have criticised atheism for being an unscientific position, oxford Professor of Mathematics John Lennox holds that atheism is an inferior world view to that of theism, and attributes to C. S. In other words, it was belief in God that was the motor that drove modern science, the leading American geneticist Francis Collins also cites Lewis as persuasive in convincing him that theism is the more rational world view than atheism. Other criticisms focus on perceived effects on morality and social cohesion, the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, a deist, saw godlessness as weakening the sacred bonds of society, writing If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. The father of Classical Liberalism, John Locke, believed that the denial of Gods existence would undermine the social order, Pope Pius XI wrote that Communist atheism was aimed at upsetting the social order and at undermining the very foundations of Christian civilization. In the 1990s, Pope John Paul II criticised a spreading practical atheism as clouding the religious and moral sense of the human heart, in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke railed against atheistical fanaticism. Critics of atheism often associate the actions of 20th-century state atheism with broader atheism in their critiques, various poets, novelists and lay theologians, among them G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis, have also criticized atheism. For example, Chesterton holds that He who does not believe in God will believe in anything, Atheism is the absence of belief that any gods exist, the position that there are no gods, or the rejection of belief in the existence of gods. Deism is a form of theism in which God created the universe and established rationally comprehensible moral and natural laws, deism is a natural religion where belief in God is based on application of reason and evidence observed in the designs and laws found in nature. Christian deism refers to a deist who believes in the moral teachings, the last 50 years has seen an increase in academic philosophical arguments critical of the positions of atheism arguing that they are philosophically unsound. In 1976, atheist philosopher Antony Flew wrote The Presumption of Atheism, according to Flew, the norm for academic philosophy and public dialogue was, at that time, for atheists and theists to both share their respective burdens of proof for their positions. In 2007, Analytic Philosopher William Lane Craigs described the presumption of atheism as one of the most commonly proffered justifications of atheism. And in 2010, BBC journalist William Crawley explained that Flews presumption of atheism made the case, the presumption of atheism has been the subject of criticism by atheists agnostics, and theists since Flew advance his position more than 40 years ago. Because the atheists conceptualization of rational differs from the theist, Nielsen argues, Analytic Philosopher and modal logician Alvin Plantinga, a theist, rejected the presumption of atheism forwarding a two-part argument. First, he shows that there is no objection to belief in God unless the belief is shown to be false, second, he argues that belief in God could be rationally warranted if it is a properly basic or foundational belief through an innate human sense of the divine. Alvin Plantingas argument puts theistic belief an equal footing with atheism even if Flews definition of atheism is accepted. McInerny argues that the extent of natural order is so pervasive as to be almost innate. McInernys position goes further than Plantingas arguing that theism is evidenced, William Lane Craig wrote that if Flews broader definition of atheism is seen as merely the absence of belief in God, atheism ceases to be a view and even infants count as atheists

10.
Implicit and explicit atheism
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Implicit atheism and explicit atheism are types of atheism coined by George H. Smith. Implicit atheism is defined as the absence of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it, explicit atheists have considered the idea of deities and have rejected belief that any exist. Implicit atheists, though they do not themselves maintain a belief in a god or gods, have not rejected the notion or have not considered it further, Smith defines implicit atheism as the absence of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it. Absence of theistic belief encompasses all forms of non-belief in deities and this would categorize as implicit atheists those adults who have never heard of the concept of deities, and those adults who have not given the idea any real consideration. Also included are agnostics who assert they do not believe in any deities, children are also included, though, depending on the author, it may or may not also include newborn babies. As far back as 1772, Baron dHolbach said that All children are born Atheists and this category would also include the child with the conceptual capacity to grasp the issues involved, but who is still unaware of those issues. The fact that this child does not believe in god qualifies him as an atheist, atheism is not to be identified with sheer unbelief. Thus, a child who has received no religious instruction and has never heard about God, is not an atheist – for he is not denying any theistic claims, Smith observes that some motivations for explicit atheism are rational and some not. Of the rational motivations, he says, The most significant variety of atheism is explicit atheism of a philosophical nature and this atheism contends that the belief in god is irrational and should therefore be rejected. Since this version of explicit atheism rests on a criticism of theistic beliefs, for Smith, explicit atheism is subdivided further into three groups, p. The difference between Nagel on the one hand and dHolbach and Smith on the other has been attributed to the different concerns of professional philosophers, so, in philosophy, atheism is commonly defined along the lines of denial of theistic belief. The terms weak atheism and strong atheism, also known as negative atheism and their original, technical meanings, however, are different and distinct from weak and strong atheism. Strong explicit atheists assert that it is false that any deities exist, weak explicit atheists assert they do not believe in deities, but do not assert it is true that deities do not exist. Those who do not believe any deities exist, but do not assert their non-belief are included among implicit atheists, agnosticism Apatheism Ignosticism Negative and positive atheism Nontheism

Implicit and explicit atheism
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on right

11.
Negative and positive atheism
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The terms negative atheism and positive atheism were used by Antony Flew in 1976 and have appeared in Michael Martins writings since 1990. For example, the God of classical theism is often considered to be a supreme being who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Positive explicit atheists assert that it is false that any deities exist, negative explicit atheists assert they do not believe any deities exist, but do not assert it is true that no deity exists. Those who do not believe any deities exist, but do not assert such non-belief, are included among implicit atheists, all implicit atheists are included in the negative/weak categorization. Under this positive/negative classification, some agnostics would qualify as negative atheists, the validity of this categorization is disputed, however, and a few prominent atheists such as Richard Dawkins avoid it. He categorizes himself as a de facto atheist but not a strong atheist on this scale, jacques Maritain used the negative/positive phrases as early as 1949, but with a different meaning and in the context of a strictly Catholic apologist. Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, better known by his nickname Gora, was an Indian social reformer, anti-caste activist and he proposed a philosophy he called positive atheism, which treated atheism as a way of life in his 1972 book, Positive Atheism. The Atheist Community of Austin uses the term positive atheism in a different sense, agnostics are not always merely implicit atheists

Negative and positive atheism
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on right

12.
New Atheism
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New Atheism, also called evangelical atheism or is a movement promoted by some atheists of the twenty-first century. The phrase New Atheism was coined by Gary Wolf in a 2006 article in Wired magazine, darwins supporter Thomas Huxley was openly skeptical, as the biographer Janet Browne describes, Huxley was rampaging on miracles and the existence of the soul. In his hands, agnosticism became as doctrinaire as anything else--a religion of skepticism, Huxley used it as a creed that would place him on a higher moral plane than even bishops and archbishops. All the evidence would nevertheless suggest that Huxley was sincere in his rejection of the charge of atheism against himself. To inquire rigorously into the domain, he asserted, was a more elevated undertaking than slavishly to believe or disbelieve. A deep sense of religion is compatible with the absence of theology. Pope Huxley, the Spectator dubbed him, Harris was motivated by the events of September 11,2001, which he laid directly at the feet of Islam, while also directly criticizing Christianity and Judaism. Two years later Harris followed up with Letter to a Christian Nation, also in 2006, following his television documentary The Root of All Evil. Richard Dawkins published The God Delusion, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 51 weeks, on September 30,2007 four prominent atheists met at Hitchens residence for a private two-hour unmoderated discussion. The event was videotaped and titled The Four Horsemen, the four have been described disparagingly as evangelical atheists. Harris is a co-founder of the Reason Project, Richard Dawkins is the author of The God Delusion, which was preceded by a Channel 4 television documentary titled The Root of all Evil. He is the founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and he wrote, I dont object to the horseman label, by the way. Im less keen on new atheist, it isnt clear to me how we differ from old atheists, christopher Hitchens was the author of God Is Not Great and was named among the Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazine. In addition, Hitchens served on the board of the Secular Coalition for America. In 2010 Hitchens published his memoir Hitch-22, shortly after its publication, Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which led to his death in December 2011. Before his death, Hitchens published a collection of essays and articles in his book Arguably, the Four Horsemen video, convened by Dawkins Foundation, can be viewed free online at his web site, Part 1, Part 2. Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, fleeing in 1992 to the Netherlands in order to escape an arranged marriage. She became involved in Dutch politics, rejected faith, and became vocal in opposing Islamic ideology, especially concerning women, as exemplified by her books Infidel and The Caged Virgin

13.
State atheism
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State atheism is a popular term used for a government that is either antireligious, antitheistic or promotes atheism. In contrast, a secular state purports to be neutral in matters of religion. State promotion of atheism as a public norm first came to prominence in Revolutionary France, Revolutionary Mexico followed similar policies from 1917, as did Marxist–Leninist states. The Soviet Union attempted to suppress public religious expression over wide areas of its influence, article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is designed to protect the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Signatories to the convention are barred from the use of threat of force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to recant their beliefs or convert. Despite this, as of 2003 minority religions were still being persecuted in many parts of the world, theodore Roosevelt condemned the Kishinev pogrom in 1903, establishing a history of U. S. presidents commenting on the internal religious liberty of foreign countries. Jimmy Carter asked Deng Xiaoping to improve religious freedom in China, Lenin states, Religion is the opiate of the people, this saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. Although Marx and Lenin were both atheists, several religious communist groups exist, including Christian communists, julian Baggini devotes a chapter of his book Atheism A Very Short Introduction to discussion of 20th century political systems, including communism and political repression in the Soviet Union. Baggini argues that Soviet communism, with its oppression of religion, is a distortion of original Marxist communism. Baggini goes on to argue that Fundamentalism is a danger in any belief system, takes the form of state secularism, not state atheism. State atheism was a policy in the Soviet Union and other Marxist–Leninist states. After the Russian Civil War, anti religious movements in the Soviet Union attempted to stop the spread of religious beliefs, the Bolsheviks were particularly hostile toward the Russian Orthodox Church and saw it as a supporter of Tsarist autocracy. The attitude in the Soviet Union toward religion varied from a ban on some religions to official support of others. From the late 1920s to the late 1930s, such organizations as the League of Militant Atheists ridiculed all religions, anti-religious and atheistic propaganda was implemented into every portion of soviet life, in schools, communist organizations such as the Young Pioneer Organization, and the media. Most seminaries were closed, and publication of writing was banned. The Russian Orthodox Church, which had 54,000 parishes before World War I, was reduced to 500 by 1940, nonetheless, their knowledge of their faith and the faith of others notwithstanding, many post-Soviet populations have a large presence of religious followers. According to the CIA Factbook, however, only 17% to 22% of the population is now Christian, another 12% said they believe in God, but did not practice any religion, and 16% said they are non-believers. In Ukraine,96. 1% of the Ukrainian population is Christian, in Lithuania, the only Catholic country which was once a Soviet republic, a 2005 report stated that 79% of Lithuanians belonged to the Roman Catholic Church

State atheism
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USSR. 1922 issue of the Bezbozhnik (The Godless) magazine. By 1934, 28% of Eastern Orthodox churches, 42% of Muslim mosques and 52% of Jewish synagogues were shut down in the USSR.

14.
Christian atheism
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Hamiltons Christian atheism is similar to Jesuism. He contends that it is impossible to think about God, van Buren says that We cannot identify anything which will count for or against the truth of our statements concerning God. The inference from these claims to the either meaningless or misleading conclusion is implicitly premised on the verificationist theory of meaning, most Christian atheists believe that God never existed, but there are a few who believe in the death of God literally. Thomas J. J. Altizer is a well-known Christian atheist who is known for his approach to the death of God. He often speaks of Gods death as a redemptive event, theologians including Altizer and Lyas looked at the scientific, empirical culture of today and tried to find religions place in it. In Altizers words, No longer can faith and the world exist in mutual isolation…the radical Christian condemns all forms of faith that are disengaged with the world and he goes on to say that our response to atheism should be one of acceptance and affirmation. Altizer has said that the radical Christian, believes that the ecclesiastical tradition has ceased to be Christian. He believed that orthodox Christianity no longer had any meaning to people because it did not discuss Christianity within the context of contemporary theology, Christian atheists want to be completely separated from most orthodox Christian beliefs and biblical traditions. Altizer states that a faith will not be pure if it is open to modern culture. This faith can never identify itself with a tradition or with a given doctrinal or ritual form. He goes on to say that faith cannot have any final assurance as to what it means to be a Christian. Altizer said, We must not, he says, seek for the sacred by saying no to the profanity of our age. They see religions which withdraw from the world as moving away from truth and this is part of the reason why they see the existence of God as counter-progressive. Altizer wrote of God as the enemy to man because mankind could never reach its fullest potential while God existed. He went on to state that to cling to the Christian God in our time is to evade the situation of our century. Although Jesus is still a feature of Christian atheism, Hamilton said that to the Christian atheist, Jesus is not really the foundation of faith, instead, he is a place to be. Christian atheists look to Jesus as an example of what a Christian should be, Hamilton wrote that following Jesus means being alongside the neighbor, being for him, and that to follow Jesus means to be human, to help other humans, and to further humankind. Other Christian atheists such as Thomas Altizer preserve the divinity of Jesus, in the Netherlands, 42% of the members of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands are nontheists

15.
Agnosticism
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Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the existence of God or the supernatural are unknown and unknowable. Agnosticism is a doctrine or set of rather than a religion. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rigveda is agnostic about the origin of the universe. Agnosticism is of the essence of science, whether ancient or modern and it simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe. Consequently, agnosticism puts aside not only the part of popular theology. On the whole, the bosh of heterodoxy is more offensive to me than that of orthodoxy, because heterodoxy professes to be guided by reason and science, and orthodoxy does not. Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, positively the principle may be expressed, In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively, In matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable, being a scientist, above all else, Huxley presented agnosticism as a form of demarcation. A hypothesis with no supporting objective, testable evidence is not an objective, as such, there would be no way to test said hypotheses, leaving the results inconclusive. His agnosticism was not compatible with forming a belief as to the truth, or falsehood, karl Popper would also describe himself as an agnostic. Others have redefined this concept, making it compatible with forming a belief, george H. Smith rejects agnosticism as a third alternative to theism and atheism and promotes terms such as agnostic atheism and agnostic theism. Agnostic was used by Thomas Henry Huxley in a speech at a meeting of the Metaphysical Society in 1869 to describe his philosophy, early Christian church leaders used the Greek word gnosis to describe spiritual knowledge. Agnosticism is not to be confused with religious views opposing the ancient religious movement of Gnosticism in particular, Huxley used the term in a broader, Huxley identified agnosticism not as a creed but rather as a method of skeptical, evidence-based inquiry. In recent years, scientific literature dealing with neuroscience and psychology has used the word to mean not knowable, in technical and marketing literature, agnostic can also mean independence from some parameters—for example, platform agnostic or hardware agnostic. Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume contended that meaningful statements about the universe are always qualified by some degree of doubt and he asserted that the fallibility of human beings means that they cannot obtain absolute certainty except in trivial cases where a statement is true by definition. A strong agnostic would say, I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, a weak agnostic would say, I dont know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on human affairs. Agnostic thought, in the form of skepticism, emerged as a philosophical position in ancient Greece

16.
Strong agnosticism
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Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the existence of God or the supernatural are unknown and unknowable. Agnosticism is a doctrine or set of rather than a religion. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rigveda is agnostic about the origin of the universe. Agnosticism is of the essence of science, whether ancient or modern and it simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe. Consequently, agnosticism puts aside not only the part of popular theology. On the whole, the bosh of heterodoxy is more offensive to me than that of orthodoxy, because heterodoxy professes to be guided by reason and science, and orthodoxy does not. Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, positively the principle may be expressed, In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively, In matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable, being a scientist, above all else, Huxley presented agnosticism as a form of demarcation. A hypothesis with no supporting objective, testable evidence is not an objective, as such, there would be no way to test said hypotheses, leaving the results inconclusive. His agnosticism was not compatible with forming a belief as to the truth, or falsehood, karl Popper would also describe himself as an agnostic. Others have redefined this concept, making it compatible with forming a belief, george H. Smith rejects agnosticism as a third alternative to theism and atheism and promotes terms such as agnostic atheism and agnostic theism. Agnostic was used by Thomas Henry Huxley in a speech at a meeting of the Metaphysical Society in 1869 to describe his philosophy, early Christian church leaders used the Greek word gnosis to describe spiritual knowledge. Agnosticism is not to be confused with religious views opposing the ancient religious movement of Gnosticism in particular, Huxley used the term in a broader, Huxley identified agnosticism not as a creed but rather as a method of skeptical, evidence-based inquiry. In recent years, scientific literature dealing with neuroscience and psychology has used the word to mean not knowable, in technical and marketing literature, agnostic can also mean independence from some parameters—for example, platform agnostic or hardware agnostic. Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume contended that meaningful statements about the universe are always qualified by some degree of doubt and he asserted that the fallibility of human beings means that they cannot obtain absolute certainty except in trivial cases where a statement is true by definition. A strong agnostic would say, I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, a weak agnostic would say, I dont know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on human affairs. Agnostic thought, in the form of skepticism, emerged as a philosophical position in ancient Greece

17.
Weak agnosticism
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Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the existence of God or the supernatural are unknown and unknowable. Agnosticism is a doctrine or set of rather than a religion. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rigveda is agnostic about the origin of the universe. Agnosticism is of the essence of science, whether ancient or modern and it simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe. Consequently, agnosticism puts aside not only the part of popular theology. On the whole, the bosh of heterodoxy is more offensive to me than that of orthodoxy, because heterodoxy professes to be guided by reason and science, and orthodoxy does not. Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, positively the principle may be expressed, In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively, In matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable, being a scientist, above all else, Huxley presented agnosticism as a form of demarcation. A hypothesis with no supporting objective, testable evidence is not an objective, as such, there would be no way to test said hypotheses, leaving the results inconclusive. His agnosticism was not compatible with forming a belief as to the truth, or falsehood, karl Popper would also describe himself as an agnostic. Others have redefined this concept, making it compatible with forming a belief, george H. Smith rejects agnosticism as a third alternative to theism and atheism and promotes terms such as agnostic atheism and agnostic theism. Agnostic was used by Thomas Henry Huxley in a speech at a meeting of the Metaphysical Society in 1869 to describe his philosophy, early Christian church leaders used the Greek word gnosis to describe spiritual knowledge. Agnosticism is not to be confused with religious views opposing the ancient religious movement of Gnosticism in particular, Huxley used the term in a broader, Huxley identified agnosticism not as a creed but rather as a method of skeptical, evidence-based inquiry. In recent years, scientific literature dealing with neuroscience and psychology has used the word to mean not knowable, in technical and marketing literature, agnostic can also mean independence from some parameters—for example, platform agnostic or hardware agnostic. Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume contended that meaningful statements about the universe are always qualified by some degree of doubt and he asserted that the fallibility of human beings means that they cannot obtain absolute certainty except in trivial cases where a statement is true by definition. A strong agnostic would say, I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, a weak agnostic would say, I dont know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on human affairs. Agnostic thought, in the form of skepticism, emerged as a philosophical position in ancient Greece

18.
Agnostic theism
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Agnostic theism is the philosophical view that encompasses both theism and agnosticism. An agnostic theist believes in the existence of a god or God and it can also mean that there is one high ruler, but it is unknowable or unknown who or what it is. The agnostic theist may also or alternatively be agnostic regarding the properties of God, there are numerous beliefs that can be included in agnostic theism, such as fideism, but not all agnostic theists are fideists. Since agnosticism is in the rather than religious sense a position on knowledge and does not forbid belief in a deity. The classical philosophical understanding of knowledge is knowledge is justified true belief. The founder of logotherapy, Viktor Frankl, may have well exemplified this definition, seidner expands upon this example and stresses Frankls characterization of unconscious. Agnostic theism could be interpreted as an admission that it is not possible to justify belief in a god sufficiently for it to be considered known. This may be because they consider faith a requirement of their religion, Christian Agnostics practice a distinct form of agnosticism that applies only to the properties of God. They hold that it is difficult or impossible to be sure of anything beyond the basic tenets of the Christian faith and they believe that God exists, that Jesus has a special relationship with him and is in some way divine, and that God should be worshipped. This belief system has deep roots in Judaism and the days of the Church. Epistemology - from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy AGNOSTICISM - from Dictionary of the History of Ideas

Agnostic theism
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Agnostic theism is belief but without knowledge, as shown in purple and blue (see Epistemology).

19.
Christian agnosticism
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Christian Agnostics practice a distinct form of agnosticism that applies only to the properties of God. They hold that it is difficult or impossible to be sure of anything beyond the basic tenets of the Christian faith and they believe that God exists, that Jesus has a special relationship with him and is in some way divine, and that God should be worshipped. This belief system has deep roots in Judaism and the days of the Church. In 1965 Christian theologian Leslie Weatherhead published The Christian Agnostic, in which he argues, many professing agnostics are nearer belief in the true God than are many conventional church-goers who believe in a body that does not exist whom they miscall God. In the summary chapter of The Christian Agnostic, Weatherhead stated what he believed in a sort of twelve-part creed,1, God, Weatherhead believed in God, whom he felt most comfortable referring to as Father. Like most Christians, he felt that the Creator was higher on a scale of values, but that God must also be personal enough to interact in a direct relationship with people. Christ, Weatherhead believed in the divinity of Christ, in that he stood in a relationship with God. Weatherhead pointed out that the New Testament never refers to Jesus as God, Jesus called himself the Son of Man and the Word. To say that Jesus was the only son of God would be an impossibility. The virgin birth was not an issue for Weatherhead, having never been a major tenet for being a follower of Christ, moreover, the New Testament traces Jesus lineage through his Father Joseph, not Mary, to show that he descended from the house of David. Since Jesus was morally superior, many theologians assume him to be sinless, Weatherhead apparently agreed with Dr. Nathaniel Mickelm, whom he quoted regarding the blood sacrifice of Jesus as something that was unnecessary for forgiveness. For Mickelm, it would be a perversion of God to suppose that God did not, yet that sacrifice revealed something of the nature of God that made one want to be forgiven. Holy Spirit, As for the Holy Spirit, Weatherhead conceded agnosticism, few Christians, whom I know, think of the Holy Spirit as a separate Person, he said. His view was that this would equate to worshiping two gods instead of one, Church, His view of the church was an idealistic one. Providence, Websters defines this as God conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny Weatherhead understood that God cared for humankind, if God is love it would be difficult to deny Gods Providence. According to Pope Benedict XVI, strong agnosticism in particular contradicts itself in affirming the power of reason to know scientific truth and he blames the exclusion of reasoning from religion and ethics for dangerous pathologies such as crimes against humanity and ecological disasters. Agnosticism, said Ratzinger, is always the fruit of a refusal of that knowledge which is in fact offered to man, the knowledge of God has always existed. However, the Church is historically opposed to a denial of the capacity of human reason to know God

20.
Apatheism
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Apatheism is the philosophical view that one should be apathetic towards the existence or non-existence of god. It is more of a rather than a belief, claim or belief system. An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or rejecting any claims that gods exist or do not exist, an apatheist may thus decide to live as if there are no gods. The existence of god is not rejected, but may be designated irrelevant, philosopher Trevor Hedberg has called apatheism uncharted territory in the philosophy of religion. One version considers the question of the existence or nonexistence of deities to be irrelevant in every way that matters. The existence of gods is not put aside for moral or epistemic reasons – for democratic or existential reasons, it is deemed unnecessary. This is a universalization of the democratic principle that there are no first- and second-class humans. In this version the existence of the gods is not one of the so-called grand questions in life. The term apatheist is believed to have come into use in the early 2000s, journalist Jonathan Rauch has claimed to be an apatheist. An apatheist may not have any interest in the god debate just purely because of their lack of interest on the topic, being all-powerful, if they truly wanted humans to believe, they could send a divine sign not left up to interpretation. This is also an argument with antitheists, Matt Dillahunty makes it with great frequency. Since they do not seem to care if humans believe or not, apatheists will not care until they show them a reason to, richard Dawkins has gone so far as to claim this position in interviews. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on human affairs. It can be summarized by the statement I dont know and I dont care, the view that one should live their life with disregard towards a god or gods. Practical atheism doesnt see the god question as irrelevant, in contrast to apatheism, practical atheism Cosmic indifferentism Creator in Buddhism Indifferentism Nontheism Postchristianity Post-theism Von Hegner, Ian. Gods and Dictatorships, A Defence of Heroical Apatheism, Science, Religion and Culture, Vol.3, Issue 1,2016. Let It Be, Three Cheers for Apatheism Apatheism, Allognosticism, and the American Religious Landscape Apatheism defined on Atheism. about. com ABC New Radio, wordwatch, Apatheism Apathetic Agnostics

Apatheism
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18th Century French philosopher Denis Diderot, when accused of being an atheist, replied that he simply did not care whether God existed or not.

21.
List of agnostics
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Listed here are persons who have identified themselves as theologically agnostic. Also included are individuals who have expressed the view that the veracity of an existence is unknown or inherently unknowable. Saul Alinsky, American community organizer and writer and he is often noted for his book Rules for Radicals. Poul Anderson, American science fiction author, piers Anthony, English-American writer in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Anthony, American civil rights leader who played a role in the 19th century womens rights movement to introduce womens suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Womens Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President, hannah Arendt, German American writer and political theorist. Samuel Beckett, Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Ambrose Bierce, American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, today, he is probably best known for his short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and his satirical lexicon The Devils Dictionary. Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer who stated that, Being an agnostic means all things are possible, even God and this world is so strange that anything may happen, or may not happen. Being an agnostic makes me live in a larger, a fantastic kind of world. Henry Cadbury, English biblical scholar and Quaker who contributed to the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, stated in a 1936 lecture to Harvard Divinity School students, wish to know whether I believe in the existence of God or in immortality, and if so why. They regard it impossible to leave these matters unsettled – or at least extremely detrimental to not to have the basis of such conviction. Now for my part I do not find it impossible to leave them open, I can describe myself as no ardent theist or atheist. Thomas Carlyle, Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era, ariel Dorfman, Argentine/Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. He was a writer whose other works include science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909. Bart D. Ehrman, American New Testament scholar and a happy agnostic, edward FitzGerald, English poet and writer, best known as the poet of the first and most famous English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Betty Friedan, American writer, activist and feminist, a leading figure in the Womens Movement in the United States, her 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century

22.
Flying Spaghetti Monster
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According to adherents, Pastafarianism is a real, legitimate religion, as much as any other. In the United States the same month, a judge ruled that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not a real religion. Pastafarianism has received praise from the community and criticism from proponents of intelligent design. The central belief is that an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, pirates are revered as the original Pastafarians. Henderson asserts that a decline in the number of pirates over the years is the cause of global warming, the FSM community congregates at Hendersons website to share ideas about the Flying Spaghetti Monster and crafts representing images of it. In January 2005, Bobby Henderson, then a 24-year-old Oregon State University physics graduate, Henderson argued that his beliefs were just as valid as intelligent design, and called for equal time in science classrooms alongside intelligent design and evolution. The letter was sent prior to the Kansas evolution hearings as an argument against the teaching of intelligent design in biology classes. According to Henderson, since the intelligent design movement uses ambiguous references to a designer, any conceivable entity may fulfill that role, Henderson explained, I dont have a problem with religion. What I have a problem with is religion posing as science, If there is a god and hes intelligent, then I would guess he has a sense of humor. In May 2005, having received no reply from the Kansas State Board of Education, Henderson posted the letter on his website, shortly thereafter, Pastafarianism became an Internet phenomenon. Henderson published the responses he received from board members. Three board members, all of whom opposed the amendments, responded positively. Henderson has also published the significant amount of mail, including death threats. During that time, his site garnered tens of millions of hits, as word of Hendersons challenge to the board spread, his website and cause received more attention and support. The satirical nature of Hendersons argument made the Flying Spaghetti Monster popular with bloggers as well as humor, the Flying Spaghetti Monster was featured on websites such as Boing Boing, Something Awful, Uncyclopedia, and Fark. com. Moreover, an International Society for Flying Spaghetti Monster Awareness and other fan sites emerged, as public awareness grew, the mainstream media picked up on the phenomenon. The Flying Spaghetti Monster became a symbol for the case against intelligent design in public education, the open letter was printed in many large newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Chicago Sun-Times, and received worldwide press attention, according to one journalist. Henderson himself was surprised by its success, stating that he wrote the letter for own amusement as much as anything and it was modeled as a parody of a similar challenge issued by young-earth creationist Kent Hovind

23.
Invisible Pink Unicorn
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The Invisible Pink Unicorn is the goddess of a parody religion used to satirize theistic beliefs, taking the form of a unicorn that is paradoxically both invisible and pink. She is an illustration used by atheists and other religious skeptics as a contemporary version of Russells teapot. The IPU is used to argue that beliefs are arbitrary by, for example. The mutually exclusive attributes of pinkness and invisibility, coupled with the inability to disprove the IPUs existence, Russells teapot is still referred to in discussions concerning the existence of God. The earliest documented reference to the IPU was on July 7,1990, other sources concerning IPU state that she was revealed to us on alt. atheism. The concept was developed by a group of college students from 1994 to 1995 on the ISCA Telnet-based BBS. The students created a manifesto that detailed a nonsensical religion based on a multitude of invisible pink unicorns and it is from this document that the most famous quotation concerning IPUs originated, Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time, like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink, we know that they are invisible because we cant see them. — Serah Eley It is common when discussing the Invisible Pink Unicorn to point out that because she is invisible, the Invisible Pink Unicorn is an illustration which attempts to demonstrate the absurdity of citing attributes and a lack of evidence as proof of a deitys existence. Her two defining attributes, invisibility and color, are inconsistent and contradictory, this is part of the satire. There are humorous mock debates amongst her followers concerning her other attributes, such as whether she is invisible, or invisible to most. Some arguments are quite elaborate and tortuous, satirizing the disputatiousness, the Invisible Pink Unicorn is also used to de-deify religious texts. And the Invisible Pink Unicorn said, Let there be light, the Invisible Pink Unicorn saw that the light was good, and she separated the light from the darkness. In 1996, a unicorn that no one can see was adapted as a device at Camp Quest. As reported years later in the July 21,2006 Cincinnati Enquirer, a philosophical favorite is the invisible, intangible, inaudible unicorn. The supposed dragon cannot be seen, heard, or sensed in any way, there is no reason to believe this purported dragon exists. At the end of the episode, the bird actually does appear, abel and Schaefer have written that the concept of the Invisible Pink Unicorn only critiques religious belief, ignoring the social activities and social commitments involved in religious practice

Invisible Pink Unicorn
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A depiction of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, in the style of a heraldic animal springing

24.
Nontheistic religions
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Nontheistic religions are traditions of thought within religions—some otherwise aligned with theism, others not—in which nontheism informs religious beliefs or practices. Nontheism has been applied to the fields of Christian apologetics and general liberal theology, while many approaches to religion exclude nontheism by definition, there are some inclusive definitions that show how religious practice and belief do not depend on the presence of god. The Buddha said that devas do exist, but they were regarded as still being trapped in samsara, in fact, the Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior to them. Since the time of the Buddha, the denial of the existence of a deity has been seen as a key point in distinguishing Buddhist from non-Buddhist views. The question of an independent creator deity was answered by the Buddha in the Brahmajala Sutta, at the end of the Sutta the Buddha says he knows these 62 views and he also knows the truth that surpasses them. On one occasion, when presented with a problem of metaphysics by the monk Malunkyaputta, the wounded man demands to know who shot the arrow, what his caste and job is, and why he shot him. He wants to know what kind of bow the man used, Malunkyaputta, such a man will die before getting the answers to his questions. It is no different for one who follows the Way, I teach only those things necessary to realize the Way. Things which are not helpful or necessary, I do not teach, a few liberal Christian theologians, define a nontheistic God as the ground of all being rather than as a personal divine being. John Shelby Spong refers to a theistic God as a personal being with expanded supernatural, human, and parental qualities, from a nontheist, naturalist, and rationalist perspective, the concept of divine grace appears to be the same concept as luck. Many of them owe much of their theology to the work of Christian existentialist philosopher Paul Tillich, another quotation from Tillich is, God does not exist. He is being itself beyond essence and existence, therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him. This Tillich quotation summarizes his conception of God and he does not think of God as a being that exists in time and space, because that constrains God, and makes God finite. But all beings are finite, and if God is the Creator of all beings, thus God is considered beyond being, above finitude and limitation, the power or essence of being itself. Hinduism is characterised by extremely diverse beliefs and practices, zaehner, it is perfectly possible to be a good Hindu whether ones personal views incline toward monism, monotheism, polytheism, or even atheism. He goes on to say that it is a religion that neither depends on the existence or non-existence of God or Gods, the latter two traditions can be seen as nontheistic. The oldest Hindu scripture, the Rig Veda mentions that There is only one god though the sages may give it various names, max Müller termed this henotheism, and it can be seen as indicating one, non-dual divine reality, with little emphasis on personality. The famous Nasadiya Sukta, the 129th Hymn of the tenth and final Mandala of the Rig Veda, considers creation and asks The gods came afterwards, /Who then knows whence it has arisen

25.
Pantheism
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Pantheism is the belief that all reality is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god. The term pantheism was not coined until after Spinozas death, and his work, Ethics, was the major source from which Western pantheism spread. Pantheistic concepts may date back thousands of years, and some religions in the East continue to contain pantheistic elements, Pantheism derives from the Greek πᾶν pan and θεός theos. There are a variety of definitions of pantheism, some consider it a theological and philosophical position concerning God. As a religious position, some describe pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism, from this standpoint, pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God. All forms of reality may then be considered either modes of that Being, some hold that pantheism is a non-religious philosophical position. To them, pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical, pantheistic tendencies existed in a number of early Gnostic groups, with pantheistic thought appearing throughout the Middle Ages. These included a section of Johannes Scotus Eriugenas 9th-century work De divisione naturae, the Roman Catholic Church has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy. Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk who evangelized about an immanent and he has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science. Bruno influenced many later thinkers including Baruch Spinoza, in the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi Portuguese origin, whose book Ethics was an answer to Descartes famous dualist theory that the body, Spinoza held the monist view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a God-intoxicated man, and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance, although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate. His work, Ethics, was the source from which Western pantheism spread. The breadth and importance of Spinozas work was not fully realized until years after his death. Spinozas magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes mind–body dualism, has earned him recognition as one of Western philosophys most important thinkers, Hegel said, You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all. His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him the prince of philosophers, Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish religious authorities issued a cherem against him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23

Pantheism
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The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is often regarded as pantheism, although he did not use that term.
Pantheism
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Albert Einstein is considered to be a pantheist by some commentators.
Pantheism
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Levi Ponce 's "Luminaries of Pantheism" in Venice, California for The Paradise Project, "dedicated to celebrating and spreading awareness about pantheism."

26.
Religious naturalism
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Religious naturalism combines a naturalist worldview with perceptions and values commonly associated with religions. Areas of inquiry include attempts to understand the world and the spiritual and moral implications of naturalist views. Understanding is based in knowledge obtained through scientific inquiry and insights from the humanities, Religious naturalists use these perspectives in responding to personal and social challenges and in relating to the natural world. Naturalism is the idea or belief that natural laws and forces operate in the world. All forms of religious naturalism, being naturalistic in their beliefs, assert that the natural world is the center of our most significant experiences. Consequently, nature is considered as the value in assessing ones being. Religious naturalists, despite having followed differing cultural and individual paths, affirm the human need for meaning, humans are considered interconnected parts of Nature. Science is a fundamental, indispensable component of the paradigm of religious naturalism and it relies on mainstream science to reinforce religious and spiritual perspectives. Science is the primary tool for religious naturalism, because, scientific methods are thought to provide the most reliable understanding of Nature. Truth is sought for its own sake, and those who are engaged upon the quest for anything for its own sake are not interested in other things. Finding the truth is difficult, and the road to it is rough and he should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency. Religious naturalists use the term “religious” to refer to an attitude - of being appreciative of and interested in concerns that have long been parts of religions. These include, A spiritual sense A moral sense As the source of all that is and the reason why all things are as they are, the natural world may be seen as being of ultimate importance. As in other orientations, religious naturalism includes a central story - a modern creation myth - to describe ourselves. This begins with the Big Bang and the emergence of galaxies, stars, planets, and life, why we do the things we do. What we might try to point ourselves toward, and to try to find ways to minimize problems, become our better selves, and relate to others and the world we are part of. When discussing distinctions between “religious” naturalists and “plain old” naturalists, Loyal Rue said, “I regard a religious or spiritual person to be one who takes ultimate concerns to heart, core themes in religious naturalism have been present, in varied cultures, for centuries. But active discussion, with use of name, is relatively recent

27.
List of deists
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They have been selected for their influence on Deism, or for their fame in other areas. Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth president of the United States of America and he never joined any church but can be described as a Christian deist but was a skeptic as a young man and sometimes ridiculed revivalists. As a young man, Lincoln enjoyed reading the works of such as Thomas Paine. He drafted a pamphlet incorporating such ideas but did not publish it, after charges of hostility to Christianity almost cost him a congressional bid, he kept his unorthodox beliefs private. James Adams labelled Lincoln as a deist and he seemed to believe in an all-powerful God, who shaped events and, by 1865, was expressing those beliefs in major speeches. Al-Maʿarri, was a blind Arab philosopher, poet and writer, andrei Sakharov, Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, and human rights activist. Charles Lyell, British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day and he is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Huttons concepts of uniformitarianism. Charles Sanders Peirce, American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist and he was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. Today he is appreciated largely for his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, scientific methodology, and semiotics, colin Maclaurin, Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. The Maclaurin series, a case of the Taylor series, are named after him. Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist and inventor and he is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements. Her crowning achievement is considered to be her translation and commentary on Isaac Newtons work Principia Mathematica, friedrich Schiller, German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher and he is best known for developing infinitesimal calculus independently of Isaac Newton, and his mathematical notation has been widely used ever since it was published. He has also labeled a Christian as well. Harmony Korine, American film director, producer, screenwriter, henrik Wergeland, Norwegian poet and theologist. Hermann Weyl, German mathematician and theoretical physicist, humphry Davy, British chemist and inventor. James Heckman, American economist who shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000 for his work in econometrics and microeconomics. James Hutton, Scottish physician, geologist, naturalist, chemical manufacturer and his work helped to establish the basis of modern geology

28.
List of secular humanists
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This is a partial list of notable secular humanists. Clark Adams, former president of the Humanist Association of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, and he is famous for the seminal paper on Big Bang nucleosynthesis called the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper. Nayef Al-Rodhan, philosopher, neuroscientist and geostrategist, author of Sustainable History and the Dignity of Man, Emotional Amoral Egoism and Symbiotic Realism. Philip Warren Anderson, American physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics, was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto. James J. Andrews, American mathematician, a professor of mathematics at Florida State University who specialized in knot theory, topology and he was a member for the organization, African Americans For Humanism Advisory Board. Taking great personal pride from the association, he became a public advocate for the movement. Margaret Atwood, Named Humanist of the Year in 1987 by the American Humanist Association, a. J. Ayer, Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism. Jeremy Bentham, English author, jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer and he became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism. He is best known for his advocacy of utilitarianism and animal rights, maria Berenice Dias, Is a progressive Brazilian judge and the first woman to take the bench in her home Braziian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Marshall Berman, American political scientist and Marxist humanist, leonard Bernstein, American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim, niels Bohr, Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Hermann Bondi, Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism, paul D. Boyer, American biochemist, analytical chemist, and a professor of chemistry at University of California Los Angeles. Was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto, johannes Brahms, German composer and pianist. Jacob Bronowski, Polish-British polymath and author of The Ascent of Man, Named Humanist of the Year in 1991 by the American Humanist Association. Roy W. Brown, British-born engineer, humanist and human rights activist, president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union 2003–2006, mary Calderone, American physician and a public health advocate for sexual education. She served as president and co-founder of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States from 1954 to 1982, selected as one of the Humanists of the Year in 1974 by the American Humanist Association. Named Humanist of the Year in 1982 by the American Humanist Association, anton J. Carlson, a signer of the original Humanist Manifesto, and was named Humanist of the Year in 1953 by the American Humanist Association. Owen Chamberlain, American physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics, was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed the Humanist Manifesto

29.
List of pantheists
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Pantheism is the belief that the universe is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god. Some Eastern religions are considered to be pantheistic, nammalvar, one of the twelve Alvars. Lao Tzu, name given to the writer of the Tao Te Ching. Heraclitus, pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the nature of his philosophy and his contempt for humankind in general, he was called The Obscure. Adi Shankara or known for consolidating the doctrine of Advaita Vedānta, johannes Scotus Eriugena, Irish theologian, Neoplatonist philosopher, and poet. Amalric of Bena, French theologian, father of medieval pantheism, giordano Bruno, Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. He was burned alive for his pantheist views, baruch Spinoza, Jewish-Dutch philosopher, has been called the prophet and prince of pantheism. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist and his alleged confession of Spinozism led to what is known as the pantheism controversy of the 1780s. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer, artist, and politician, in addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, and over 10,000 letters written by him are extant, as are nearly 3,000 drawings. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism, ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he one of the most famous. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies,5 concertos for piano,32 piano sonatas and he also composed other chamber music, choral works, and songs. He has also labeled a theist as well. Caspar David Friedrich, German Romantic landscape painter, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, German philosopher. Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields, ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Henry David Thoreau, American author, poet, philosopher, freemason, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, walt Whitman, American poet, essayist and journalist

30.
Ethics (Spinoza)
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Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order, usually known as the Ethics, is a philosophical treatise written by Benedict de Spinoza. It was written between 1664 and 1665 and was first published in 1677, the book is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to apply the method of Euclid in philosophy. The first part of the addresses the relationship between God and the universe. Tradition held that God exists outside of the universe, created it for a reason, according to Spinoza, God is the natural world. As with many of Spinozas claims, what means is a matter of dispute. Spinoza claims that the things that make up the universe, including human beings, are Gods modes and this means that we and everything else are, in some sense, dependent upon God. The nature of this dependence is disputed, some scholars say that the modes are properties of God in the traditional sense. Others say that modes are effects of God, Gods creation of the universe is not a decision, much less one motivated by a purpose. The second part of the Ethics focuses on the human mind, Spinoza denies each of Descartess points. Regarding, Spinoza argues that the mind and the body are a thing that is being thought of in two different ways. The whole of nature can be described in terms of thoughts or in terms of bodies. However, we cannot mix these two ways of describing things, as Descartes does, and say that the mind affects the body or vice versa. Moreover, the minds self-knowledge is not fundamental, it know its own thoughts better than it knows the ways in which its body is acted upon by other bodies. Further, there is no difference between contemplating an idea and thinking that it is true, and there is no freedom of the will at all. Sensory perception, which Spinoza calls knowledge of the first kind, is entirely inaccurate and we can also have a kind of accurate knowledge called knowledge of the second kind, or reason. This encompasses knowledge of the common to all things, and includes principles of physics. We can also have knowledge of the kind, or intuitive knowledge. This is a sort of knowledge that, somehow, relates particular things to the nature of God, in the third part of the Ethics, Spinoza argues that all things, including human beings, strive to persevere in their being

31.
The End of Faith
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Harris began writing the book in what he described as a period of collective grief and stupefaction following the September 11,2001 attacks. The book comprises a wide-ranging criticism of all styles of religious belief, the book was first published August 11,2004, and it was awarded the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction the following year. The paperback edition was published in October 2005, in the same month it entered The New York Times Best Seller list at number four, and remained on the list for a total of 33 weeks. The End of Faith opens with an account of a day in the life of a suicide bomber – his last day. In an introductory chapter, Harris calls for an end to respect and tolerance for the belief systems of religion. Harris continues by examining the nature of belief itself, challenging the notion that we can in any sense enjoy freedom of belief, instead he posits that in order to be useful, beliefs must be both logically coherent, and truly representative of the real world. Harris follows this with a survey of Christianity down the ages, examining the Inquisition and persecutions of witches. He contends that, far from being an aberration, the torture of heretics was an expression of Christian doctrine – one which. Going still further, Harris sees the Holocaust as essentially drawing its inspiration from historical Christian anti-Semitism, knowingly or not, he says, the Nazis were agents of religion. Among the controversial aspects of The End of Faith is an assessment and criticism of Islamism. He infers a clear link between Islamic teaching and terrorist atrocities such as 9/11, a notion he supports with quotations from the Koran that call for the use of violence. He also presents data from the Pew Research Center, purporting to show that significant percentages of Muslims worldwide would justify suicide bombing as a legitimate tactic, Not only do we still eat the offal of the ancient world, he asserts, we are positively smug about it. He talks about the need to sustain moral communities, a venture in which he feels that the separate religious moral identities of the saved, but Harris is critical of the stance of moral relativism, and also of what he calls the false choice of pacifism. In another controversial passage, he compares the ethical questions raised by collateral damage and he concludes that collateral damage is more ethically troublesome. If we are unwilling to torture, we should be unwilling to wage modern war, finally, Harris turns to spirituality, where he especially takes his inspiration from the practices of Eastern religion. He discusses the nature of consciousness, and how our sense of self can be made to vanish by employing the techniques of meditation and he later elaborates, The mystic has reasons for what he believes, and these reasons are empirical. He states that it is possible for ones experience of the world to be radically transformed, in a review for Free Inquiry, the editor Thomas W. Flynn alleged that Harris had allowed his argument to become clouded by his personal politics and by his use of spiritual language. Harris later described Flynns review as mixed, misleading, and ultimately exasperating, another review by David Boulton for New Humanist, also stopped short of a ringing endorsement, describing the book as containing startling oversimplifications, exaggerations and elisions

The End of Faith
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The End of Faith

32.
The God Delusion
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He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsigs statement in Lila that when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion, with many examples, he explains that one does not need religion to be moral and that the roots of religion and of morality can be explained in non-religious terms. In early December 2006, it reached number four in the New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction Best Seller list after nine weeks on the list, more than three million copies were sold. The book has attracted commentary, with many books written in response. Dawkins has argued against creationist explanations of life in his previous works on evolution, the theme of The Blind Watchmaker, published in 1986, is that evolution can explain the apparent design in nature. In The God Delusion he focuses directly on a range of arguments used for. Dawkins had long wanted to write a book openly criticising religion, by the year 2006, his publisher had warmed to the idea. Dawkins attributes this change of mind to four years of Bush and this led to a 50% growth in that category over the three years to that date. Dawkins dedicates the book to Douglas Adams and quotes the novelist, the first few chapters make a case that there is almost certainly no God, while the rest discuss religion and morality. Dawkins writes that The God Delusion contains four consciousness-raising messages, Atheists can be happy, balanced, moral, Natural selection and similar scientific theories are superior to a God hypothesis—the illusion of intelligent design—in explaining the living world and the cosmos. Children should not be labelled by their parents religion, terms like Catholic child or Muslim child should make people cringe. Atheists should be proud, not apologetic, because atheism is evidence of a healthy, chapter one, A deeply religious non-believer, seeks to clarify the difference between what Dawkins terms Einsteinian religion and supernatural religion. Dawkins instead takes issue with the present in religions like Christianity, Islam. The proposed existence of this interventionist God, which Dawkins calls the God Hypothesis and he maintains that the existence or non-existence of God is a scientific fact about the universe, which is discoverable in principle if not in practice. Dawkins summarises the main philosophical arguments on Gods existence, singling out the argument from design for longer consideration, Dawkins concludes that evolution by natural selection can explain apparent design in nature. A hypothesis, with supporting theories, that explains how, from simple origins and principles, something more complex can emerge. At the end of chapter 4, Dawkins sums up his argument and states, The temptation is a false one, the whole problem we started out with was the problem of explaining statistical improbability. It is obviously no solution to something even more improbable

The God Delusion
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First edition cover

33.
God Is Not Great
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God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything is a 2007 book by Anglo-American author and journalist Christopher Hitchens, in which he makes a case against organized religion. It was published by Atlantic Books in the United Kingdom as God Is Not Great and he supports his position with a mixture of personal stories, documented historical anecdotes and critical analysis of religious texts. His commentary focuses mainly on the Abrahamic religions, although it also touches on other religions, the book received mixed reviews, but sold well. Hitchens writes that, at the age of nine, he began to question the teachings of his Bible instructor and he discusses people who become atheists, describing some as people who have never believed, others are those who have separately discarded religious traditions. He asserts that atheists who disagree with each other will eventually side together on whatever the evidence most strongly supports and he concludes by saying that he would not want to eradicate religion if the faithful would leave him alone, but ultimately they are incapable of this. Hitchens answers, Just to stay within the letter B, I have actually had that experience in Belfast, Beirut, Bombay, Belgrade, Bethlehem and Baghdad. I would feel threatened if I thought that the group of men approaching me in the dusk were coming from a religious observance. He gives detailed descriptions of the social and political situations within these cities. He has thus not found it a prudent rule to help as the prayer meeting breaks up. He discusses the 1989 fatwa issued on author and friend Salman Rushdie by the Ayatollah Khomeini because of the contents of Rushdies book The Satanic Verses and he criticises several public figures for laying the blame for the incident on Rushdie himself. Hitchens discusses the prohibition on eating pigs in Judaism, also adopted by Islam and he says that this proscription is not just Biblical or dietary. Hitchens explains how some religions can be hostile to treating diseases and he writes that many Muslims saw the polio vaccine as a conspiracy, and thus allowed polio to spread. He discusses the Catholic Churchs response to the spread of HIV in Africa, telling people that condoms are ineffective and he notes with examples that some in both the Catholic and the Muslim communities believe irrationally that HIV and HPV are punishment for sexual sin—particularly homosexuality. He describes religious leaders as faith healers, and opines that they are hostile to medicine because it undermines their position of power and he concludes the chapter writing of the religious wish for obliteration — for a death in the form of the day of the Apocalypse. Hitchens begins by saying that the faith that could stand up to any form of reason is long gone. He compares the knowledge of the world in Thomas Aquinass time to what we now know about the world. He discusses the design arguments, using such as the human body wearing out in old age as bad design. He writes that if evolution had taken a different course

God Is Not Great
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God Is Not Great

34.
The System of Nature
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The System of Nature or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World is a work of philosophy by Paul Henri Thiry, Baron dHolbach. It was originally published under the name of Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud, most notoriously, the work explicitly denies the existence of God, arguing that belief in a higher being is the product of fear, lack of understanding, and anthropomorphism. It makes a distinction between mythology as a more or less benign way of bringing law ordered thought on society, nature and their powers to the masses. Theology which, when it separates from mythology raises the power of nature above nature itself and its principles are summed up in a more popular form in dHolbachs Bon Sens, ou idées naturelles opposees aux idées surnaturelles. The book was considered radical in its day and the list of people writing refutations of the work was long. The prominent Catholic theologian Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier wrote a refutation titled Examen du matérialisme, Voltaire, too, seized his pen to refute the philosophy of the Système in the article Dieu in his Dictionnaire philosophique, while Frederick the Great also drew up an answer to it. DHolbachs friend Denis Diderot had enthusiastically endorsed the book, P. B, shelley became an ardent atheist after reading The System of Nature, and proceeded to translate the book. According to Will Durant, the System of Nature contains the most comprehensive description of materialism and atheism in the history of philosophy. In his student days, Goethe had recoiled with revulsion at the contents in the book, in his old age he harbored similar views, We belong to the laws of nature, even when we rebel against them. According to Voltaire, the book was popular among the populace, including scholars, the ignorant. The System of Nature--English translation The System of Nature, Volume 1 at Project Gutenberg The System of Nature, Volume 2 at Project Gutenberg

The System of Nature
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Opening page of The System of Nature.

35.
Letter to a Christian Nation
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Letter to a Christian Nation is a book by Sam Harris, written in response to feedback he received following the publication of his first book The End of Faith. The book is written in the form of a letter to a Christian in the United States. Harris states that his aim is to demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most committed forms, the book was released in September 2006. In October it entered the New York Times Best Seller list at number seven, the underlying premise Harris takes is one of utilitarianism. He states, Questions about Morality are questions about happiness and suffering, Harris addresses his arguments to members of the conservative Christian Right in America. Harris also addresses the problem of evil—the difficulty in believing in a good God who allows disasters like Hurricane Katrina—and the conflict between religion and science. Contrary to those who advocate religious tolerance, mutual respect, and interfaith dialogue and he argues that religion may have served some useful purpose for humanity in the past, but that it is now the greatest impediment to building a global civilization. The book was released with laudatory endorsements from Richard Dawkins, Leonard Susskind, Roger Penrose, Matt Ridley, Desmond Morris, Janna Levin, and Michael Gazzaniga. There was also an unsigned blurb attributed by the publisher to a New York Times best selling author, who wrote, I cant sign my name to this blurb. As a New York Times best selling author of books about business, my career will evaporate if I endorse a book that challenges the deeply held superstitions, thats exactly why you should read this angry and honest book right away. As long as science and rational thought are under attack by the misguided yet pious majority, please buy two, one for you and one for a friend you care about. Commenting in The New York Times Book Review during the 2008 U. S, reviewing the book in the San Francisco Chronicle, Jean E. Barker wrote, This combination of ruthless argument with polemic designed to provoke. Will further delight Harris supporters and infuriate his critics and his glee in his own intelligence aside, Harris is stricken by the amount of preventable suffering in the world and has identified ending religion as the cure. This small book adds little new to Harris argument in The End of Faith—indeed, the Washington Post reported in 2006 that Letter stimulated both strong positive and strong negative reactions, attracting both a large audience and strong counter-reactions from religious scholars. The Post said the book doesnt drill many new theological wells, jamie Doward of The Observer said Harris wastes no time taking on his enemy - Christian fundamentalism of the sort that influences President George W. Bush. However, he went on to say that, Dawkins and Harris seem unfamiliar with religious tradition as biblical monotheists know it from personal experience and deep study. Frankly, the success of the new atheist faith would be hard to imagine without todays soaring levels of societal religious illiteracy. Writing in The Observer, Stephanie Merritt described Harris as providing concise anti-religious apologetics, the New Criterion described Letter as condescending, saying Harris is too choked on bile, or at best incredulity to admit that his addressees are worth speaking with

Letter to a Christian Nation
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Letter to a Christian Nation

36.
Why I Am Not a Muslim
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Why I Am Not a Muslim, a book written by Ibn Warraq, is a critique of Islam and the Quran. It was first published by Prometheus Books in the United States in 1995, the title of the book is a homage to Bertrand Russells essay, Why I Am Not a Christian, in which Russell criticizes the religion in which he was raised. The authors polemic criticizes Islams mythology, theology, historic achievements, Warraq, drawing largely on previous research, provides an invaluable compilation of Islams shortcomings. He makes a case that Islam is flatly incompatible with individual rights and liberties of a liberal, democratic

Why I Am Not a Muslim
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Why I Am Not a Muslim

37.
List of secularist organizations
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The term secularism, as coined and promulgated by George Jacob Holyoake, originally referred to such a view. Secularism may also refer to the belief that government should be neutral on matters of religion, the term is here used in the first sense, though most organizations listed here also support secularism in the second sense. Secularists, and their organizations, identify themselves by a variety of terms, including agnostic, atheist, bright, freethinker, humanist, nontheist, naturalist, rationalist, despite the use of these various terms, the organizations listed here have secularist goals in common. Note that, while most of these organizations and their members consider themselves irreligious, the Clergy Project provides support, community, and hope to religious professionals who no longer hold supernatural beliefs. European Humanist Federation is a union of numerous humanist organisations from most European countries whose purpose is to promote humanism and secularism in Europe, IHEU is a union of over 100 Humanist or secularist organizations in more than 40 countries. It is an international NGO with special status with the United Nations. Conwall Hall Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association Humani Humanist Society of Scotland Leicester Secular Society, founded in 1851, american Humanist Association, organization promoting Humanism in the US. American Secular Union Americans United for Separation of Church and State is an organization dedicated to preserving church-state separation to ensure religious freedom for all Americans. Camp Inquiry, a camp run by the Center for Inquiry. Camp Quest, The Secular Summer Camp, is a summer camp in the United States for the children of those who hold a naturalistic world view. Center for Inquiry Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, former independent project created by Richard Dawkins, city Congregation for Humanistic Judaism Council for Secular Humanism is a non-profit educational association. Fellowship of Humanity First Humanist Society of New York Freedom From Religion Foundation, according to its website, is the largest group of atheists, the Humanist Institute Institute for Humanist Studies Internet Infidels is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to defending and promoting a naturalistic worldview on the Internet

38.
Atheist Alliance International
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Atheist Alliance International is a global federation of atheist organizations and individuals, committed to educating the public about atheism, secularism and related issues. AAI was founded in 1991 as Atheist Alliance, an alliance of four U. S. -based local atheist groups. Over time Atheist Alliance expanded, adding both local/regional U. S. groups and international groups as members, and changed its name to Atheist Alliance International in 2001. In 2010 and 2011 members approved the separation of the U. S. and international segments of AAI into separate organizations, to accommodate the different strategic interests of each group. The U. S. group of AAI was renamed Atheist Alliance of America, the group retained the original AAI name but adopted new bylaws. The launch of the newly restructured AAI occurred at the World Atheist Convention in Dublin, in 2013, the AAI was granted special consultative status by the United Nations. In this role the AAI will be able to better serve atheists facing persecution from their governments, aAIs Board consists of between 4 and 13 Directors elected for two-year staggered terms. No more than three Directors can come from any one country and each Affiliate or Associate Members is limited to one nominee on the Board at any time, AAI Officers are Directors and elected for one-year terms by the Board following each Annual General Meeting. The current President of AAI is Christine Shellska from Calgary, Alberta, AAI has three classes of membership, Affiliate Members, Associate Members and Individual Members. Affiliate and Associate Members are atheist/freethought groups, which have their own individual members, Individual Members are people who wish to support the work of AAI. All Members are entitled to attend meetings but only Affiliate Members are entitled to vote. AAIs vision is a world where public policy, scientific inquiry and education are not influenced by religious beliefs. AAIs activities include, Facilitating and hosting atheist conventions and conferences around the world, supporting Kasese Humanist Primary School in Uganda through the facilitation of student sponsorships and fundraising support. Publishing Secular World magazine edited by Rustam Singh and producing Secular World podcast, hosted by Jake-Farr Wharton, supporting the development of new atheist groups, particularly in developing countries. Lobbying internationally to support freedom of expression and conscience, especially for atheists who are oppressed by religious discrimination, the first annual convention held by AAI took place in 1995 in Los Angeles. The first international convention held by AAI took place in 2006 in Reykjavik, in 2010, AAI began its current program of co-hosting conventions with affiliate and associate members. Since 2010, AAI has co-hosted or supported conferences in, Melbourne, Australia Montréal, Canada Copenhagen, Denmark Mexico City, AAI operates a legal defense fund and a scholarship fund in Aans name. Aan was sentenced to two years and six months in jail on 14 June 2012 and fined Rp100 million and he was freed from prison on 27 January 2014

Atheist Alliance International
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Generic atheist symbol, the result of a 2007 AAI contest, created by Diane Reed.

39.
Freedom From Religion Foundation
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The Freedom From Religion Foundation is an American non-profit organization based in Madison, Wisconsin with members from all 50 states. The largest national organization advocating for non-theists, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state and educates the public on matters relating to atheism, agnosticism, the FFRF publishes a newspaper, Freethought Today 10 times a year. Since 2006, as the Freethought Radio Network, FFRF has produced the Freethought Radio show, the FFRF was co-founded by Anne Nicol Gaylor and her daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor, in 1976 and was incorporated nationally in 1978. The organization is supported by over 23,500 members and operates from an 1855-era building in Madison, Wisconsin, that once served as a church rectory. According to the 2011 IRS tax Form-990, FFRF spent just over $200,000 on legal fees and services and just under $1 million on education, outreach, publishing, broadcasting, and events. The allotment for legal fees is used in cases supporting the separation of church. FFRF also has a staff of twenty two, including five full-time staff attorneys and two legal fellows. She edited the FFRF newspaper Freethought Today until July 2008, in March 2011, FFRF, along with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, began The Clergy Project, a confidential on-line community that supports clergy as they leave their faith. In 2012, it gave its first Freedom From Religion Foundation and Clergy Project Hardship Grant to Jerry DeWitt, in June 2013 FFRF announced that, along with the Secular Student Alliance, it would work on educating students on their religious rights and would assist with rectifying violations. In 2015, FFRF announced a new arm, NonBelief Relief. Nonbelief Relief is an agency for atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and their supporters to improve this world. Nonbelief Relief seeks to remediate conditions of human suffering and injustice on a scale, whether the result of natural disasters. In June 2004, the FFRF challenged the constitutionality of the White House Office of Faith-Based, the FFRF further asserted, Congressional appropriations used to support the activities of the defendants. In 2007 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that taxpayers do not have the right to challenge the constitutionality of expenditures made by the executive branch. In May 2007, the FFRF, on behalf of Indiana taxpayers, challenged the creation of a pilot program for the Indiana Family. The FSSA hired Pastor Michael L. Latham, a Baptist minister, in 2006, in September 2007, in response to the FFRFs suit, Indiana ended the program. It was alleged that Young favored faith-based nursing parish programs for state funding, according to the court, the state funding of faith-based healthcare violated the First Amendment. In April 2006, the FFRF sued to challenge the pervasive integration of spirituality into health care by the Department of Veteran Affairs, the case was later dismissed after the Hein decision because of lack of standing

40.
Reason Rally
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The first rally was sponsored by major atheistic and secular organizations of the United States and was regarded as a Woodstock for atheists and skeptics. The punk rock band Bad Religion performed and other notables addressed the crowd by video link, participants recited the Pledge of Allegiance, deliberately omitting the phrase under God, which was added by the U. S. Congress in 1954. Armed Forces were represented, and a retired Army colonel, Kirk Lamb, the website had predicted it would be the largest secular event in world history. The Atlantic said 20,000 people were in attendance, the documentary The Unbelievers says that over 30,000 people attended the rally. There are no official estimates of events on the Mall. The second rally, the Reason Rally for 2016, was billed as a celebration of fact-driven public policy, the value of critical thinking, the weekend of the Rally included advocacy events and conference sessions. According to the first rallys official website, the event had three goals, To encourage attendees to come out of the closet as secular Americans. Participation by non-theists of all persuasions, ethnicities, genders. The intent was to show there are secular Americans in every major demographic. Secular Americans should be permitted to run for office and adequately represent non-theists. Non-theists deserve a seat at the table just as theists do, organizers said the aim of the rally was twofold, to unite individuals with similar beliefs and to show the American public that the number of people who don’t believe in God is large and growing. “We’re not just a fringe group. ”According to rally spokesman Jesse Galef, diversity with the attendees was a focus this year. Comparing the 2012 rally to the 2002 Godless rally which was mainly over-40 white men, once people realize that their neighbor, co-worker or family member is an atheist it goes a long way towards acceptance. Politics played a part of the Rally according to Posner, considering that there is only one openly atheist American Congressperson. In the Huffington Post, Staks Rosch praised the rally, david Niose, the president of the American Humanist Association stated that The secular demographic does not claim to have a monopoly on rationality, but it does feel that it has something to offer. By rallying in Washington, seculars are not whining about some imagined victimization, nate Phelps, an atheist and estranged son of Fred Phelps, the founder of the fringe group, Westboro Baptist Church, supported the Reason Rally and was among the events speakers. Rally host Paul Provenza addressed the issue of anti-religiosity in his announcement, saying, “Were not here today to bash anyones religion… but, hey. The American Constitution is a treasure, the envy of the world

41.
World Pantheist Movement
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The World Pantheist Movement is the worlds largest organization of people associated with pantheism, a philosophy which asserts that spirituality should be centered on nature. The WPM promotes strict naturalistic pantheism without belief in any supernatural beings, realms, the WPM grew out of a mailing list started by Paul Harrison in 1997, arising around his Scientific Pantheism website. An initial group of 15 volunteers worked on a joint statement of agreed beliefs, the WPM officially opened for membership in December 1999. The official views of the World Pantheist Movement are listed in the nine points of the Belief Statement and these are summarized as follows, Reverence, awe, wonder and a feeling of unity with Nature and the wider Universe. Respect and active care for the rights of all humans and other living beings, celebration of our lives in our bodies on this beautiful earth as a joy and a privilege. Realism - acceptance that the world exists independently of human consciousness or perception. Strong naturalism - without belief in supernatural realms, afterlives, beings or forces, respect for reason, evidence and the scientific method as our best ways of understanding nature and the Universe. Promotion of religious tolerance, freedom of religion and complete separation of state, the specific Statement is as follows,1. We revere and celebrate the Universe as the totality of being, past, present and it is self-organizing, ever-evolving and inexhaustibly diverse. Its overwhelming power, beauty and fundamental mystery compel the deepest human reverence, all matter, energy, and life are an interconnected unity of which we are an inseparable part. We rejoice in our existence and seek to participate more deeply in this unity through knowledge, celebration, meditation, empathy, love, ethical action. We are a part of Nature, which we should cherish, revere. We should strive to live in harmony with Nature locally and globally and we acknowledge the inherent value of all life, human and non-human, and strive to treat all living beings with compassion and respect. All humans are equal centers of awareness of the Universe and nature, there is a single kind of substance, energy/matter, which is vibrant and infinitely creative in all its forms. Body and mind are indivisibly united and we see death as the return to nature of our elements, and the end of our existence as individuals. The forms of available to humans are natural ones, in the natural world. Our actions, our ideas and memories of us live on and our genes live on in our families, and our elements are endlessly recycled in nature. We honor reality, and keep our minds open to the evidence of the senses and these are our best means of coming to know the Universe, and on them we base our aesthetic and religious feelings about reality

World Pantheist Movement

42.
Secularism
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Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. Another manifestation of secularism is the view that public activities and decisions, especially political ones, the purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely. In European laicism, it has argued that secularism is a movement toward modernization. This type of secularism, on a social or philosophical level, has occurred while maintaining an official state church or other state support of religion. Within countries as well, differing political movements support secularism for varying reasons, the term secularism was first used by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851. Although the term was new, the notions of freethought on which it was based had existed throughout history. Holyoake invented the term secularism to describe his views of promoting a social order separate from religion, an agnostic himself, Holyoake argued that Secularism is not an argument against Christianity, it is one independent of it. It does not question the pretensions of Christianity, it advances others, Secularism does not say there is no light or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Barry Kosmin of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society, according to Kosmin, the hard secularist considers religious propositions to be epistemologically illegitimate, warranted by neither reason nor experience. In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and this can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion. This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of religious minorities, what all secular governments, from the democratic to the authoritarian, share is a concern about the relationship between the church and the state. Each secular government may find its own unique policy prescriptions for dealing with that concern, maharaja Ranjeet Singh of the Sikh empire of the first half of the 19th century successfully established a secular rule in the Punjab. Ranjit Singh also extensively funded education, religion, and arts of various different religions, Secularism is most often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and it plays a major role in Western society. The principles, but not necessarily the practices, of separation of church and state in the United States, Secular states also existed in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages. Due in part to the belief in the separation of church and state, the most significant forces of religious fundamentalism in the contemporary world are Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism. At the same time, one significant stream of secularism has come from religious minorities who see governmental and political secularism as integral to the preservation of equal rights, in studies of religion, modern democracies are generally recognized as secular. This is due to the freedom of religion, and the lack of authority of religious leaders over political decisions. Nevertheless, religious beliefs are considered by many people to be a relevant part of the political discourse in many of these countries

43.
List of religions and spiritual traditions
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Religion is a collection of cultural systems, beliefs and world views that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes to moral values. While religion is hard to define, one model of religion, used in religious studies courses, was proposed by Clifford Geertz. A critique of Geertzs model by Talal Asad categorized religion as an anthropological category, many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws, or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos, according to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world. The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system, Certain religions also have a sacred language often used in liturgical services. Religious beliefs have also used to explain parapsychological phenomena such as out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences and reincarnation. A group of monotheistic traditions sometimes grouped with one another for comparative purposes, oriental Orthodox Churches, Includes the Armenian Apostolic, Coptic, Syrian Orthodox, Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches, as well as a portion of the St. Thomas Christians in India. Greek Old Calendarists Russian Old Believers Bezpopovtsy Popovtsy Spiritual Christianity Doukhobor Molokan Certain Christian groups are difficult to classify as Eastern or Western, irenaeus wrote polemics against them from the standpoint of the then-unified Catholic Church. They are definitely of ancient Israelite origin, but their status as Jews is disputed, falasha or Beta Israel Noahidism Noahidism is a monotheistic ideology based on the Seven Laws of Noah, and on their traditional interpretations within Rabbinic Judaism. According to Jewish law, non-Jews are not obligated to convert to Judaism and they derive from African traditional religions, especially of West and Central Africa, showing similarities to the Yoruba religion in particular. co. uk section on major world religions

44.
Natural
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Nature, in the broadest sense, is the natural, physical, or material world or universe. Nature can refer to the phenomena of the world. The study of nature is a part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or essential qualities, innate disposition, and in ancient times, literally meant birth. Natura is a Latin translation of the Greek word physis, which related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals. This usage continued during the advent of scientific method in the last several centuries. Within the various uses of the word today, nature often refers to geology, for example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, human nature or the whole of nature. Depending on the context, the term natural might also be distinguished from the unnatural or the supernatural. Earth is the planet known to support life, and its natural features are the subject of many fields of scientific research. Within the solar system, it is third closest to the sun, it is the largest terrestrial planet and its most prominent climatic features are its two large polar regions, two relatively narrow temperate zones, and a wide equatorial tropical to subtropical region. Precipitation varies widely with location, from several metres of water per year to less than a millimetre,71 percent of the Earths surface is covered by salt-water oceans. The remainder consists of continents and islands, with most of the land in the Northern Hemisphere. Earth has evolved through geological and biological processes that have left traces of the original conditions, the outer surface is divided into several gradually migrating tectonic plates. The interior remains active, with a layer of plastic mantle. This iron core is composed of a solid phase. Convective motion in the core generates electric currents through dynamo action, the atmospheric conditions have been significantly altered from the original conditions by the presence of life-forms, which create an ecological balance that stabilizes the surface conditions. Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth, the geology of an area evolves through time as rock units are deposited and inserted and deformational processes change their shapes and locations

45.
Natural sciences
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Natural science is a branch of science concerned with the description, prediction, and understanding of natural phenomena, based on observational and empirical evidence. Mechanisms such as review and repeatability of findings are used to try to ensure the validity of scientific advances. Natural science can be divided into two branches, life science and physical science. Physical science is subdivided into branches, including physics, space science, chemistry and these branches of natural science may be further divided into more specialized branches. Modern natural science succeeded more classical approaches to natural philosophy, usually traced to ancient Greece, galileo, Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Newton debated the benefits of using approaches which were more mathematical and more experimental in a methodical way. Still, philosophical perspectives, conjectures, and presuppositions, often overlooked, systematic data collection, including discovery science, succeeded natural history, which emerged in the 16th century by describing and classifying plants, animals, minerals, and so on. Today, natural history suggests observational descriptions aimed at popular audiences, philosophers of science have suggested a number of criteria, including Karl Poppers controversial falsifiability criterion, to help them differentiate scientific endeavors from non-scientific ones. Validity, accuracy, and quality control, such as peer review and this field encompasses a set of disciplines that examines phenomena related to living organisms. The scale of study can range from sub-component biophysics up to complex ecologies, biology is concerned with the characteristics, classification and behaviors of organisms, as well as how species were formed and their interactions with each other and the environment. The biological fields of botany, zoology, and medicine date back to periods of civilization. However, it was not until the 19th century that became a unified science. Once scientists discovered commonalities between all living things, it was decided they were best studied as a whole, modern biology is divided into subdisciplines by the type of organism and by the scale being studied. Molecular biology is the study of the chemistry of life, while cellular biology is the examination of the cell. At a higher level, anatomy and physiology looks at the internal structures, constituting the scientific study of matter at the atomic and molecular scale, chemistry deals primarily with collections of atoms, such as gases, molecules, crystals, and metals. The composition, statistical properties, transformations and reactions of these materials are studied, chemistry also involves understanding the properties and interactions of individual atoms and molecules for use in larger-scale applications. Most chemical processes can be studied directly in a laboratory, using a series of techniques for manipulating materials, chemistry is often called the central science because of its role in connecting the other natural sciences. Early experiments in chemistry had their roots in the system of Alchemy, the science of chemistry began to develop with the work of Robert Boyle, the discoverer of gas, and Antoine Lavoisier, who developed the theory of the Conservation of mass. The success of science led to a complementary chemical industry that now plays a significant role in the world economy

Natural sciences
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The natural sciences seek to understand how the world and universe around us works. There are five major branches: Chemistry (center), astronomy, earth science, physics, and biology (clockwise from top-left).
Natural sciences
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Space missions have been used to image distant locations within the Solar System, such as this Apollo 11 view of Daedalus crater on the far side of the Moon.
Natural sciences
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Plato (left) and Aristotle in a 1509 painting by Raphael. Plato rejected inquiry into natural philosophy as against religion, while his student, Aristotle, created a body of work on the natural world that influenced generations of scholars.
Natural sciences
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Isaac Newton is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time.

46.
Ontology
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Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence or reality as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Although ontology as an enterprise is highly hypothetical, it also has practical application in information science and technology. Some philosophers, notably of the Platonic school, contend that all refer to existent entities. Other philosophers contend that nouns do not always name entities, between these poles of realism and nominalism, stand a variety of other positions. An ontology may give an account of which refer to entities, which do not, why. Principal questions of ontology include, What can be said to exist, into what categories, if any, can we sort existing things. What are the meanings of being, what are the various modes of being of entities. Various philosophers have provided different answers to these questions, one common approach involves dividing the extant subjects and predicates into groups called categories. Such an understanding of ontological categories, however, is merely taxonomic, what does it mean for a being to be. Is existence a genus or general class that is divided up by specific differences. Which entities, if any, are fundamental, how do the properties of an object relate to the object itself. What features are the essential, as opposed to merely accidental attributes of a given object, how many levels of existence or ontological levels are there. Can one give an account of what it means to say that an object exists. Can one give an account of what it means to say that an entity exists. What constitutes the identity of an object, when does an object go out of existence, as opposed to merely changing. Do beings exist other than in the modes of objectivity and subjectivity, i. e. is the subject/object split of modern philosophy inevitable. e. Being, that which is, which is the present participle of the verb εἰμί, eimí, i. e. to be, I am, and -λογία, -logia, i. e. logical discourse. The first occurrence in English of ontology as recorded by the OED came in a work by Gideon Harvey, Archelogia philosophica nova, or, New principles of Philosophy

Ontology
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Parmenides was among the first to propose an ontological characterization of the fundamental nature of reality.

47.
Spiritual naturalism
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Long before the term Spiritual Naturalism was coined by Huysmans there is evidence of the value system of Spiritual Naturalism in the Stoics. Virtue consists in a will that is in agreement with Nature”, spirituality is an overarching concept related to religion and affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. It is seen as positive because of trends toward privileging individuality. Perhaps a less necessarily contextual definition is found in the words of K. I, pargament, who sees spirituality as a “search for the sacred” of each individual. Naturalism is “the idea or belief that natural laws and forces operate in the world. It is not, however, necessarily a lack of religion, given a definition of religion that includes searching for the truths of the universe, chief among modern forms of Spiritual Naturalism are religious naturalism, religious humanism, dualist pantheism, and humanistic religious naturalism. Some liberal Jewish congregations, nontheist Friends, and Unitarians have similar orientations in their adoption of Religious Naturalism beliefs, at present, there is a growing interest in adopting a Spiritual Naturalism rational alternative for the modern world because many are losing their belief in more traditional spiritual avenues. This is demonstrated in the recent rapid growth of Religious Naturalism, pantheism, theologians such as John Shelby Spong and Paul Tillich have embraced thinking that is non-secular naturalist. The difference in interpreting the difference between religious and spiritual, humanist and naturalist and free will and determinism also needs a consensus, in addition the individualistic nature and thinking of many of the adherents preclude organizing cohesive communities. However recent authors are highlighting the paradigm via their naturalistic writings, examples are, Mordecai Kaplan, John Shelby Spong, Paul Tillich, John A. T. Robinson, William Murry and Gordon Kaufman. Some of those into process theology may also be included in this movement, Spiritual Naturalism has advocates that cover the religious spectrum including neo-theism, non-theism, and not-theism, though the advocates are by no means limited to these orientations. The majority probably are agnostic or atheistic while many prefer not to be categorized, there is a vast difference in opinions on how to address the question of a deity of some kind, if at all. Spiritual Naturalism is chiefly concerned with finding ways to access traditional spiritual feelings without the inclusion of supernatural elements incompatible with science and a broad naturalism. To adherents, the intellectual and emotional experience of something greater than oneself is seen as a phenomenon of enduring value, Spiritual Naturalist ideas are most prevalent in Reconstructionist Judaism, a modern Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan. Reconstructionist Jews assert that Judaism, as a culture and as a religion, is evolving and adapting to modernity. God is not perceived as a supernatural being, but as being “manifest in the practice of kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth. ”The reconstructionist conception of God is compatible with the spiritual naturalist’s assertion that there is no supernatural, spirituality is manifest in the physical world. Kaplan also states that “the reality of God henceforth will have to be experienced through the functioning of conscience in the conduct of men and nations. ”To Kaplan and Reconstructionist Jews, God is the consciousness of the Jewish community. One strives to know God, and to know God is to know how to live morally, Naturalism in Christianity is a rarer phenomenon than in some other religions because of the intensity of belief in the personhood of God, especially through the figure of Jesus Christ

Spiritual naturalism
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Joris-Karl Huysmans

48.
Supernatural
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One complicating factor is that there is disagreement about the definition of natural and the limits of naturalism. Concepts in the domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality. Sometimes we understand by nature the established course of things, as when we say that nature makes the night succeed the day, nature hath made respiration necessary to the life of men. Sometimes we take nature for the universe, or system of the works of God, as when it is said of a phoenix, or a chimera. And sometimes too, and that most commonly, we would express by nature a semi-deity or other kind of being. Parapsychologists use the term psi to refer to a unitary force underlying the phenomena they study. Views on the supernatural vary, for example it may be seen as, from this perspective, some events occur according to the laws of nature, and others occur according to a separate set of principles external to known nature. For example, in Scholasticism, it was believed that God was capable of performing any miracle so long as it didnt lead to a logical contradiction, others believe that all events have natural and only natural causes. They believe that human beings ascribe supernatural attributes to purely natural events, such as lightning, rainbows, floods, the supernatural is a feature of the philosophical traditions of Neoplatonism and Scholasticism. In contrast, the philosophy of Metaphysical naturalism argues for the conclusion that there are no supernatural entities, objects, most religions include elements of belief in the supernatural while also often featuring prominently in the study of the paranormal and occultism. Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. It is not possible, in process metaphysics, to conceive divine activity as an intervention into the “natural” order of events. Process theists usually regard the distinction between the supernatural and the natural as a by-product of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, in process thought, there is no such thing as a realm of the natural in contrast to that which is supernatural. On the other hand, if “the natural” is defined more neutrally as “what is in the nature of things, in Whiteheads words, “It lies in the nature of things that the many enter into complex unity”. It is tempting to emphasize process theisms denial of the supernatural, dreams as a Source of Supernatural Agent Concepts. Riekki T, Lindeman M, Raij T. T, Supernatural Believers Attribute More Intentions to Random Movement than Skeptics, An fMRI Study. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Purzycki Benjamin G, the Minds of Gods, A Comparative Study of Supernatural Agency. Unresolved Mourning, Supernatural Beliefs and Dissociation, A Mediation Analysis, vail K. E, Arndt J, Addollahi A

49.
Religions
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Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities

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Existence
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Existence is commonly held to be that which objectively persists independent of ones presence. Ontology is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being. In mathematics, existence is asserted by a quantifier, the existential quantifier, the properties of the existential quantifier are established by axioms. The word existence comes from the Latin word exsistere meaning to appear, to arise, to become, or to be, but literally, it means to stand out. In Aristotles Metaphysics, there are four causes of existence or change in nature, the cause, the formal cause, the efficient cause. The Neo-Platonists and some early Christian philosophers argued about whether existence had any reality except in the mind of God, Some taught that existence was a snare and a delusion, that the world, the flesh, and the devil existed only to tempt weak humankind away from God. The medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas argued that God is pure being, the early modern treatment of the subject derives from Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicoles Logic, or The Art of Thinking, better known as the Port-Royal Logic, first published in 1662. This is called affirming or denying, and in general judging and this judgment is also called a proposition, and it is easy to see that it must have two terms. One term, of which one affirms or denies something, is called the subject, the other term, the two terms are joined by the verb is. Thus every proposition has three components, the two terms, and the copula that connects or separates them, even when the proposition has only two words, the three terms are still there. For example, God loves humanity, really means God is a lover of humanity and this theory of judgment dominated logic for centuries, but it has some obvious difficulties, it only considers proposition of the form All A are B. a form logicians call universal. It does not allow propositions of the form Some A are B, if neither A nor B includes the idea of existence, then some A are B simply adjoins A to B. Arnaulds theory was current until the middle of the nineteenth century, david Hume argued that the claim that a thing exists, when added to our notion of a thing, does not add anything to the concept. For example, if we form a notion of Moses. Kant also argued that existence is not a predicate. Schopenhauer claimed that “everything that exists for knowledge, and hence the whole of this world, is only object in relation to the subject, perception of the perceiver, in a word, franz Brentano challenged this, so also did Frege. Brentano argued that we can join the concept represented by a phrase an A to the concept represented by an adjective B to give the concept represented by the noun phrase a B-A. For example, we can join a man to wise to give a wise man, but the noun phrase a wise man is not a sentence, whereas some man is wise is a sentence